What I tell people about my progress on a 1600-word paper

(I wrote this back in 2012. Grad school has been a hoot.)

0 words – I’m researching for a paper.
45 words – I’m working on a 1600-word paper.
78 words – It’s going!
102 words – I have a solid foundation written.
330 words – I’ve made quite a bit of progress.
403 words – I have over a quarter of it finished already.
801 words – I’ve done all the hard work. It’s all downhill from here.
976 words – I’m getting close to finishing it now.
1246 words – It’s practically finished. It just needs some fleshing out.
1457 words – I still have some editing to do.
1612 words – Oh yeah, it’s finished. I even went over a little.