marilyn - 100-word novel

Not done one of these for a while. This is a bit more tell-y than I'd like, better to just have actions. But hey, 100 words.


Marilyn

Marilyn's novel took seventy-one years to write. Begun at fifteen, finished when she was eighty-six.

The style was questioning; multiple uncertain, provisional, contradictory viewpoints. Sometimes doubling back on themselves and asking, 'was this right?'

Despite this, and the years spent writing, the novel was just one hundred and twenty-six pages long.

To mark its publication Marilyn took the thirty-two previous completed and partial drafts, as well as boxes of notes, correspondence and research, and burned them.

It was a bright, hot August day. Marilyn's great niece helped feed the pages onto the bonfire in the garden.