Welcome to the Fifteen Minute Novel. Each morning I spend fifteen minutes writing on a singular story line. Each morning starts with the last line of the previous day. The goal is to get a (very) rough draft out of the simple story idea and to avoid letting the story idea languish in limbo forever, actually writing it out. This is the third year I have done this writing experiment and each year I learn just a little bit about myself and the way I write as well as creating a framework for the story. But without further ado…
Buildings grew few.
Buildings grew few. Open land dominated. There were agricultural fields, some in large rectangles, others less sharp sided and boarded by rivers. The rivers were bendy lines that eventually spilled into little pools that she was sure were large lakes. The clouds crew denser as they climbed and soon obscured the world below. As the plane leveled off, the clouds stretched in a thick white blanket covering the world as far as Gwen could see.
It looked like a slightly bumpy blank sheet of paper waiting for someone to write on it. Gwen leaned back against her still upright seat and looked out at the vast expanse of white. It was clean and fresh and it reminded her of the thought she had when the plane began to pull away from the airport.
‘Starting something new,’ she thought. Somehow that seemed less daunting then she expected. It felt more positive than she felt in the past week. Before she could only see everything in her life ending. She saw nowhere that anything could go. Her plans crumbled and she had nothing. Now she was starting something new. She didn’t know what that new was, but it was definitely not what came before. It felt like everything she was before was being left behind.
Gwen thought of her running clothes and favorite sneakers, now packed in the large suitcase in the cargo hold. ‘Maybe not leaving everything behind.’
Her father told her to run if it made her happy. It did and so she continued. Sharron didn’t like it and Toby thought it was a waste of time. Lisa too thought it was a waste of her time now that she wasn’t on the track team and np longer trying for any sort of scholarship.
‘But I still like it,’ she thought. ‘So I’m keeping it.’
The drinks cart came by and Gwen got a ginger ale while the man next to her got a coffee. When they got their drinks, he put down his tray table. Propped his book up against it and returned to ignoring everyone on the plane. Gwen lowered her tray table and placed her ginger ale on it between sips.
‘So I’m keeping the running,’ she decided. If her grandmother didn’t object then she might be able to point out a good place for her to run. ‘And if she does object than I can take it back up when I leave. I only planned to stay the summer.’
Thoughts of going back made her stomach want to churn so Gwen shifted her thoughts. She was sure there are other things she liked to do that she hadn’t done in a while. Things she liked that she no longer had time for or gave up because no one wanted to do them with her. As the plane took her further from Westport, Gwen thought about it. She mentally flashed on Stanley as he gave his valedictorian speech and smiled.
Ten til Midnight 