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 8: She had an idea for a dress float through her head that morning and while it was still lodged in the back of her mind, she wanted to get it on paper before it drifted away completely.
She had an idea for a dress float through her head that morning and while it was still lodged in the back of her mind, she wanted to get it on paper before it drifted away completely. Sophie felt her day’s rough edges smooth out as she concentrated on getting the lines on paper in exactly the way she wanted them. For now, she was simply drawing a woman wearing the dress. Later, after the dress was drawn, she would set the image to the side for a while before coming back and adjusting her design.
Generally, she took her time with garments she made from scratch. When she thought the design was almost exactly what she wanted she would then break the drawing down into pieces that could be used to create a pattern. The pattern she would then use on inexpensive cloth to get the feel of the design and make further adjustments once it was in a fully realized form. Only once the final adjustments were done would she use the more expensive materials for the final creation.
Unlike the sleepwear she managed to create for Janine’s website, it would take a significant amount of time to design and create. While there was some variation in the sleepwear and robes it tended to be variations on a theme that she could knock out fairly quickly. She had several popular patterns and merely varied the color and details. For the robes and dressing gowns there was varied length, material and the details of the design, but there was also thickness to consider. The lighter robes tended to sell well for Valentines Day and into the summer but in the colder months the thicker more Victorian dressing gowns tended to be far more popular.
‘But I have time before I need to think about the heavier garments,’ Sophie told herself as she set her sketch pad and pencils to the side. She stood and stretched, realizing that she was now settled in her own skin and her exhaustion was rising. Careful not to think about anything that would cause her irritation to return, Sophie prepared the apartment for bed and slipped in between her sheets, snuggling under the blanket.
As always she couldn’t resist sliding her feet over the soft linen of the bed sheets. While she didn’t make the sheets even if she did use various scraps of cloth to make the crazy quilt on top, Sophie invested in the highest quality sheets she could afford. She waited for sales and even though she had several different sets in different fabrics, she had to admit the linen ones were her favorite.
Soon the exhaustion of her day caught up with her.
In the morning, Sophie didn’t remember any dreams but had the distinct impression that she spent it running and the sheets were tangled up around her legs. “Well, they are going in the laundry today as well,” she said. Her hair and pillow were both damp with sweat.
“Good thing too,” she decided.
Sophie slipped out of bed, stretched and reveled in the fact that she was waking an hour later than her alarm would have gotten her up for work. Sleeping in on Saturdays was one of her favorite luxuries. Sophie went to the bathroom.
Ten til Midnight 