Still the novel

I am 34,000 words in, and I think the second draft will be longer than the first, but I still feel as if I could almost, almost taste the end coming up.

I like the part where you have to step back for a while and research some of the details--like what is the perfect poem to pass in a note folded in class, to not say too much or too little, to be just a little obscure but not too obscure (because some things are too much to ask of even an overachieving high school senior). I found it, I think -- though I may have to reconsider later because it's still under copyright.