“What’s it about?”

“Everything!”

“Must be pretty long, then.”

“Not particularly, no.  Actually, it’s probably going to be very short.”

“Then why aren’t you done yet?”

“It’s hard.”

“Ha!  What’s so hard about writing a short novel?”

“Well, you try writing a short novel about Everything!”

It was all happening very suddenly, but there was this infinitesimally short instant of calm, where he got the chance to reflect on the past, and watch a rerun of his entire life.

He didn’t expect it to fit within a fifty word story, though.