Episode 1237: Story's Almost Done!

I've almost reached the minimum word count for the portfolio, which is technically 7200, thanks to the +/- 10% rule the department operates with. I'm going to try and get as close as possible to 8000, just because I don't want to shortchange my storytelling any more than I already am by doing it just over 36 hours before everything's due. I'm not even sure if the narrative voice I'm using would be considered appropriate for a YA story, but I'm past caring at this point. I don't think it's really my fault for not being able to imagine what words a 15-year-old can be expected to know and understand. Damn it, they should be expected to look it up in a dictionary! That's what I would have done at that age. My vocabulary was precocious, even if I wasn't necessarily so. (Controversial!) If I'm being honest, I'm also tired of feeling like I have to age the storytelling downwards all the time, despite Microsoft Word still informing that readers even younger than what I'm targeting will actually have no trouble understanding the story I've written, and you'd expect an American piece of software like Word to err on the side of stupidity. I don't know if I want to spin this story out into the novel that I originally had in mind though. I find writing long fiction exhausting, and on a personal level, not particularly rewarding when compared to poetry. My not-so-secret ambition is to write a science fiction novel, but I would happily trade that accomplishment for having a volume of my poetry published by a respectable press. It's a good thing, I suppose, that I don't have to make a living off my writing, at least until I'm in my earlier 30s because that's when my bond ends and life-changing decisions will have to be made. Or won't be, as the case may be. I'd be terrible at it. Making a living off my writing, I mean. Life-changing decisions I can generally cope with.