The Fifteen Minute Novel is an attempt to take a single prompt and use the last sentence written each day as a start for the next day. This year I had several prompts circling around a similar story, so I have combined them. However, the story starts the same way each day, with the last line from the day before and a timer set for fifteen minutes. The hope is to end up with a complete, if very rough draft by the end of the year. Some stories are better than others, but I always learn a whole lot about my own writing when I do this so for me it is not only a nice way to work out a story, but it is a tool for helping my writing get better. And so, we continue this story for 2024 with…
Day 6: Occasionally Sophie took special commission projects in addition to the sleepwear line she provided for the site.
Occasionally Sophie took special commission projects in addition to the sleepwear line she provided for the site. Lately, with her extra hours at the office Sophie was only able to produce the number of sleep wear items she and Janine agreed on with only a little extra. She finished up what Janine asked for earlier in the week and would be dropping it by Janine’s apartment down the hall in the morning. After that she would spend the weekend working on her own projects and get back to the sleepwear on Monday.
‘I also promised myself that I would look over the figures and do the math.’ Sophie reminded herself.
While she had been giving the odd piece to Janine for her shop or website for years it had only been in the last six months that they came to a regular arrangement of a set number of sleepwear items for the site per month. Sophie kept records of how much she spent on materials and the amount of time each piece took her to create so she could figure out a fair price that would not only let her continue to produce items but so that it remained worth her time.
When Janine transferred her payment for the pieces electronically, Sophie moved the money into a separate bank account she set up solely for this venture. She wanted to make sure the money was available for tax purposes and not mingled with her regular funds. One of the few things she feared was not figuring the taxes correctly and looking like she was trying to cheat the government out of its due. She had no desire to go to prison for the sake of silk pajamas.
Now that six months passed, Sophie wanted to look over the figures and see how things really shook out. That along with making a pair of wide legged trousers similar to those she saw in a recent Vogue issue comprised the bulk of her weekend plans. While she knew she was too tired to start either tonight, she couldn’t resist going into the second bedroom she long ago turned into her workroom and let her hands travel over the fabric she chose for the trousers.
The trousers she planned to create could easily be worn to work or styled differently and worn out, should she decide she wanted to go out. She considered it a win. As she managed to find the perfect fabric and knew it would drape as she wanted in the pattern she planned to use, Sophie was quite pleased with herself. The items she planned to take to Janine were on hangers and inside garment bags waiting for her to take them down the hall.
The knock on her door signaled the arrival of dinner and Sophie went to answer it. She signed for the food and took it back into the living room, setting it on the coffee table. She then turned on the television and navigated to a documentary she was watching on the silk industry. While she loved sewing and creating garments, Sophie had an over all weakness for textiles. She loved seeing how each type of fabric was created.
Ten til Midnight 