The fifteen minute novel writing experiment is an 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 204: She pulled her hand away from the orb and opened her eyes.
She pulled her hand away from the orb and opened her eyes. The room was still cold but wearing her cloak and bringing the blanket to stand on protected her. Her face was chilled but the rest of her remained warm.
Anya smiled at her foresight and bent to pick up the blanket from the floor. As she made her way silently back to her quarters, Anya wondered over what she learned. Over all it wasn’t much.
‘Just something about a Fairweather estate and the fact that Rulash has a new king who Lord Mathis is not entirely certain of.’ She slipped through the corridors wondering how she could learn more about either. “Someone else might know of the Fairweather estate but she didn’t know how to ask them.
‘There are books on Rulash and they would presumably mention the kings and ruling house,’ she thought. The problem was Anya wasn’t certain how up to date that information would be. She doubted there were recent updates so the last king listed in the books could be several generations back.
‘Maybe there will be dates,’ she thought. ‘And I needed to look up more information on Rulash anyway.’ As the Kingdom where Lord Mathis made his home, Anya suspected understanding a little of its history and how it functioned would not be bad information to have.
‘And I do have time for study,’ she thought. Anya smiled. At the moment all of her food needs were taken care of and there were limited places she could go and even fewer chores required of her. She had only to bathe herself and keep her own clothes clean. She tended the fire as needed and had the rest of the day to spend in study.
‘In one form or another,’ she thought as she reached her quarters. ‘Even using the orb is a form of study.’
Anya placed the folded blanket down on her bed and slipped off her cloak. She moved to the fire and coaxed the banked coals into glowing embers. As she built up the fire she realized she didn’t mind the study. She enjoyed learning new things. She had regretted leaving school and not being able to learn more and had enjoyed helping the younger ones in their studies. Now that her reading was improving and it was less of a chore, she enjoyed it more.
It was just the feeling that this was the calm before the storm feeling that she didn’t enjoy. Each day Anya felt that she was given only a short window to learn what she needed before the storm fell. She suspected it would arrive in the spring. She liked the learning and the information, even the lessons with Deran, now that she was used to addressing him. She wasn’t terribly fond of feeling the time limit. As though it were little grains of sand in an hourglass that someone turned over.
‘Still there is nothing I can do about that, I suppose.’
Anya settled herself with her latest book once the fire was settled into something she could simply maintain by adding necessary fuel. She began to read.
Time passed. She read, had her lessons with Deran and took her independent lessons on the workings of Rulash.
Ten til Midnight 