novel 2013
nasrin khosrowshahi
2013
1. Once again, once again. Ah to hammer fifty thousand words in less than thirty days, yep, it is once more November. This is national novel writing month, a writing extravaganza that started in Berkeley some twenty years ago, a writingish conglomerate that now spans all across five continents. Author here ponders, if she described the nanowrimo phenomenon accurately, she watches the woman in brown and black and olive sprint up the stairs, she feels the dullness of her writingish endeavour, she listens in to the constant talk-a-talk of the study group near the entrance of the college library, she can see the boredom of the librarians, the ones that are here for ages, she types away types away, every day at least 1300 words, but more 3000, she will be a winner at the end of the month, her wordcount will make it should make it. The red chairs near the window, ah the writing the writing. The roar of the computer, it is as if the machine screams at her. She types she writes. Her words her words. Slight poetry, slight novelling. Where does fiction start where does it end, who categorizes writing? We have 195 words here, ah, a lot more to go, a lot a lot. Vancouver as grey as always, she ponders, nobody will publish this, you cannot dis any given region if you want to make it in lit land. You have to be utterly nice and utterly polite, do not mess with powers that are stronger than you. That yield more power than what the individual can possibly yield. Philosophical waxing, otherwise called non-fiction. She ponders, she is not articulate enough for non-fiction, nope, this is definitely a novel. A non-novel. A semiautographical account, a logbook of a lowly writer. She looks around, seems, not everybody is starting up her great international novel, the woman in black who drives the chairs around and looks to her back, she has other things on her mind than penning the nextest masterpiece, so does the young woman at the other chair, who is wearing a black coat with a reddish lining. She 1
novel 2013
nasrin khosrowshahi
2013
sneezes, loudly, starts typing ah typing. There is a thesaurus near the window, there are so many thesauruses near the window. Thesauri or whatever the plural of thesaurus might be. And we write here write here. Against the dreariness of the after-Halloween, when orange and black is not en vogue any more, when little kids are brought to the day-care in the distance, when stuff happens only waiting to be described by writer here and writer here. She has no plot for her story, none and none and none, none. 446 words, write on and write on and write on and write on. A woman in red and white outside, the college here is happening happening. 2. She ponders if it is wise to number her mini-chapters, what if she gets it wrong, what if she calls a chapter “3” when it is “2”. If you partition the words it has to be accurately. You have to compartmentalize your words nicely, there has to be an inner logic to the way things are done. We cannot have anarchy here, there has to be a Prussian structure to everything. Author ponders around, maybe her last sentence was non-P.C.. we cannot have that have that. Be nice, lady, be nice, ah nice. 3. Writing is boring, already already. We have only 572 words here, how will we make it through 50 000, how to survive this survive this, the horror, the horror. The woman in black who drives the chairs walks by author again, this time with a new load of chairs. She has her hair in an up-do now, she stares down, she is content with her lot, no more looking around. The drudgery of the everyday, the everyday the everyday. And there she is again, the chair she drives forward now, is black, one single blackish chair. Some of the chairs are black, some of them are silvery. And we type here and type here and type here and type here. 2
novel 2013
nasrin khosrowshahi
2013
4. She ponders what to write about. She spent too much time on the nanowrimo-site, checking out the various forums out, the ones in Adelaide and the Netherlands, the ones in Chelsea, nyc and new west right here in vancitay, the ones in hamburg and, well, she did not really check all of those forums out. And, hey, is it forums or fora? The most intriguing post was the one that invited people to do a five Burroughs tour in nyc, just go all over town and write and write and write and write. Furthermore, there was a woman in, maybe the Netherlands who has penned 25 000 words already, even with the time dif that is impressive, impressive. Author ponders, she remembers that in 2012 a woman in Goteborg, Sweden finshed the 50 000 words in seventeen hours, wow, that must be pretty bad for the fingers, all that typing, carpal tunnel galore. We have still 840 here, nothing to talk about, lots to sneeze at, scoff at, anyhoo, type on and type on and type on and type on. Author here checked her email, she had a so very nice e-rejection , the lady was very sweet in her rejection, anyhoo, let us type and type and type and type still some more. A woman in pastel green is busy knitting a pastel beige shawl, silently quietly on the red chair in the corner near the window, in the library at langara langara. Author here ponders if it is better for the writing to name the college here, should it not be better to refer to this as THE COLLEGE, anycollege, anyuniversity. And what is the dif between the term university and college, they are all skools, all skools. No hierarchy ah no hierarchy. 9890, ah not bad and not bad. Her words are so very shmeh, but, hey, we write and we write, quantity over quality, always always. Author ponders, she had definitely probs with signing in to the nanowrimosite, apparently she now has three different accounts and only one of them works, pretty weird huh pretty strange and strange. It is cold here chilly, she has to go and have something to eat, this is annoying annoying annoying. 1056, yay, one and thousand and five and six. Not quite and not 3
novel 2013
nasrin khosrowshahi
2013
quite and not quite and not quite and not quite. Ah the singsongs of the language, on November first, in vancitay vancitay. 1094 it is and it is and it is and it is. 5.
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