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 130: “We might want to take a trip to the market this weekend though, just so you can see what is available,” Margaret added.
“We might want to take a trip to the market this weekend though, just so you can see what is available,” Margaret added.
Gwen nodded. “Probably,” she agreed. “I’m sure even if I don’t take anything home there will be homework. I’ll have to at least practice the skills I learn in class.”
“That is homework I can get behind,” George said as he picked up another cookie. “I bet I can become even fearsomely authoritative in making sure you do all of your homework.” He grinned and then bit into the cookie. “It might be fun actually.”
After dinner, Gwen helped clean up and then retreated to the room she was starting to think of as her own. She made certain everything she needed for the following day was ready and waiting. Her work for the mornings class was done and she figured out how much adding the extra chocolate cost her and what she would have to charge for the cookies because of it.
She took out her art supplies and put the few items she would need for that class into the bag to be ready and waiting for her once she finished her morning run in the park. She then put the items needed for the cooking class onto the chair. There would be less time between the cooking class and the baking one then there was between today’s classes. She would have time to come home change and grab a quick sandwich before she needed to be go out again.
“Homework will have to come later,” she decided. There would still be plenty of time. Her class would end well before her grandmother returned from wherever she was going and they talked about dinner.
Once she was satisfied that everything was ready, she looked to her art supplies. She opened her sketch pad and looked at the drawing she did that day.
“Not too bad,” she said looking at it. It wasn’t great and she could admit she needed a lot more practice. It had been a long time since she did anything but doodle. ‘Of course my doodles were pretty detailed.’
She smiled and left one of the pencils and the sketch pad on the bed. She checked her phone for messages. There were none. She opened her lap top to look for e-mails. There was one from Michael suggesting movies and times for the weekend. She looked at the schedule and then the movie listings and sent him back the options that worked for her.
Then she navigated to a streaming site, slipped on her ear phones and let one of the shows she liked play. She opened her sketch pad to a fresh page and began to draw.
Ten til Midnight 