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 72: There were a few shelves of books against the wall with dust thickly coating their spines.
There were a few shelves of books against the wall with dust thickly coating their spines. There was a work table littered with bowls of varying sizes, some with the remains of liquid dried into the bottom of them. They too were coated with dust and looked as though they hadn’t been touched in a long time.
Anya decided not to touch them herself. While there was a wooden stool at the work top off to the side was a homier looking section of room. It had a thickly upholstered chair with a foot stool. There was a fireplace that appeared to have been set for a fire before whoever used the space walked out forever. There was a set of fire irons placed beside it and even extra wood in the wood box. The waps had papers stuck to them but they were so dust coated and spider web hung that Anya couldn’t make out what they were.
As Anya turned she was that there was light coming into the room and saw windows carved into the stone walls of the room. They were high up and designed to let in light more than to provide a nice view of the world outside. At the moment uncertain moonlight was flickering in.
While Anya found the hidden study interesting, her body was more interested in sleep than exploration. She let herself back out of the room and stepped onto the stairs. The hidden door clicked shut behind her and she continued into the short passageway. There was no one about when she exited the long corridor and made her way to her room. She had accumulated a few cobwebs and a coating of dust from her adventure through the wall. Anya reached her room without anyone questioning her appearance.
‘Of course we have silence for two days more so I doubt there would be questions out loud anyway, she thought as she bolted her bedroom door. She wearily stripped off her clothing and put in a halfhearted attempt to knock the dust off of it. She was too tired to do much in the way of cleaning. Her eyes felt gritty and heavy and she felt lije her efforts were accomplishing little.
‘I’ll go over it in the light of morning,’ Anya decided. She moved to the wash basin, pleased that her pitcher was still mostly full. She thought longingly of the bathing hut by the lake side in Tyrin and wished she could submerge herself in water and scrub until she was certain she was fully clean.
‘I’d probably fall down and knock my head on the bottom and drown if I tried now anyway,’ Anya decided. She was more diligent in scrubbing herself than dusting off her clothes but suspected she would still need to do a better job in the morning. By the time she was dressed for bed, she could barely keep her eyes open. Anya blew out the lantern’s flame and slipped into bed. She planned to think about what she had been shown, but as soon as she closed her eyes sleep pulled her under.
When she next opened her eyes, Anya had to brush away the sleep from her eyes. It felt heavier and grittier than usual. She stretched and felt achy all over. At first she was puzzled, but then she remembered her tumble into the secret room.
Ten til Midnight 