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…
Day 77: People seemed pleased by her questions rather than annoyed.
People seemed pleased by her questions rather than annoyed. ‘Hopefully it’s because I am not annoying and not just because of my grandfather.’ She suspected that part of their willingness to talk to her was because of George and she tried to be polite so they wouldn’t think it an onerous duty.
When her time with the accounting department was done, she was transferred to another department and again she was walked through. She knew less about the department and so had more questions and many more notes. Along the way she saw several people from the running group that morning and smiled at them politely.
When lunch arrived, Gwen was glad for the break and was taken back up to her grandfather’s office. He was wrapping up a meeting and Laura asked her for her sandwich order as George had a working lunch. Gwen made her selection and the order was called in. She ate with her grandfather and was then picked up by the next department head and taken to her next round of visitations.
The overview gave her a lot of information about the business and what each different departments did and by the time the day was wrapped up and Gwen was once again taken to her grandfather’s office, her notebook and brain were both full and her hand was cramping from her note taking.
They left the office and George looked tired. “How was your day?” she asked.
“It was fine actually,” he said. “There is one particular project that is causing major problems though. One half of the team is ready to sprint forward and the other wants to drag it’s heels.”
“That sounds annoying,” Gwen said.
“It is,” he said. “It feels a bit like I have a wagon that needs two horses to pull but the two horses I have are a race horse and a plow horse. Admittedly I would probably get into trouble if I called Peter a plow horse.”
“Because it is less insulting to be thought of as a race horse?” Gwen asked.
George snorted a laughter. “I suppose that isn’t very complementary either. So how was your day? Learn anything?”
“I learned a lot,” Gwen said.
George tilted his head. “But?” he asked.
“But, I’m not sure any of it applies to me,” she added. “I mean it is useful if I wanted to do what they do.”
“But you are not sure you want to do what they do,” George said. “Understandable and knowing that is useful too,” he told her. “Sometimes it is helpful to know what you don’t want to do. It clears away a lot of the clutter so you can see what is left.”
“Except that there is the whole world left,” Gwen pointed out. “At least it seems that way.”
“True,” he said. “So how about this. Is there something you’d like to try? Something you think you might enjoy trying out, even just for a few weeks this summer. You don’t have to decide a life time in one day. I know a lot of people take a year off to experience things and see what there is in the great wide world. At the very least you can take the summer to try out some things.”
“I suppose that is true,” she said.
“So let’s brainstorm,” George said.
Ten til Midnight 