The fifteen minute novel writing experiment is a attempt to write a complete (and very rough) draft of a novel by writing for fifteen minutes each day. I have taken a timed writing from one of the daily prompts done in 2021, cleaned it up a little and used it as my jumping off point into a story. Each day I will take the last line of the story written the day before and use it as my sentence starter and write for fifteen minutes, growing the story as the year progresses.
Day 54: Anya finished her cup and lowered it along with the other women.
Anya finished her cup and lowered it along with the other women. It was strange to sit in such silence. The Matron left and after she was gone everyone placed their cups down on the tables and stood. Anya stood along with them. While there was no talking, there was t thrum of excitement running through the assembled. Eyes were bright and shiny with hope everywhere Anya looked.
Anya wondered how many of their hopes were to be realized. Having no true idea what to expect, Anya went with the others to tier usual location. While they assumed their normal positions, today there was less movement. No one reached for their in progress projects. Needles were stilled and material folded. While Anya wasn’t the only one carrying a basket of work, proving she wasn’t the only one to miss the cue that today was the day of purification, no one opened their baskets, resting them instead beside their feet instead.
Anya followed suit and then wondered what she was supposed to do with herself. The others sat, hands settled neatly in their laps, thoughts turned inward. The seating was more for general companionship than conversation as they were to maintain silence. As Anya looked around she noticed that no one, even the younger woman sitting with her seemed to have a problem with the stilled silence. As Anya only saw her fall silent when she was concentrating on a difficult bit of stitchery, it was strange to see her so still and silent.
It felt even stranger to be so still and silent. Anya could never really remember being so before. From the time she could first walk she had been given the bobbins used to make lace and set to practice until her actions could contribute to the family income. When she played outside with the others it was often an attempt to gather herbs and wild mushrooms or to delve into the sea or rivers for their bounty to bring back. Even though she remembered playing among the ruins she also remembered coming back with baskets of the herbs that grew among them, along with the mushrooms that clustered in the shadows. Play was never merely about play. In school she sat still for the most part but she was listening, learning. While confined to the chair there was writing and reading and the doing of sums. Later she was tasked with the care of the younger ones and she knew when she was old enough she would be sent to the laundry. There was no point where she had ever just sat quietly doing nothing.
Anya felt her fingers twitch as though longing to take up a task. While the others seemed to have no problems, Anya had to fight the urge to reach for her basket.
‘Maybe the next two days I’ll leave it in the room,’ she decided. Anya deliberately turned her eyes from the basket and looked out of the window. ‘Contemplation,’ Anya thought. “Well I do have things to think about.’ While she let her thoughts skim over her next steps, she hadn’t really thought about them. ‘But I have three days of silence,’ Anya thought.
Ten til Midnight 