All Those Words...

I just finished (I think) an essay I've been working on for a while that I'm really proud of. It's 15 pages and the word count puts it just under 5,000 words which for some reason is really fascinating to me. Seems like a lot of words, although I have written longer things in the past.

This reminds me of the time my mother, father and godmother came to see my play "The Donut Hole" many years ago. The play was a really dirty comedy about lesbians and pornography so I was worried they might find it offensive. They really got a kick out of the play and afterwards my mother and godmother came up to me and said they like the play and they couldn't get over the fact that I'd "written all those words. how did you put all those words together?"

As simple-minded as this sounds, sometimes I wonder about this too. Not only how, but why?

Any answers out there?