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 54: She took a deep breath and turned back to the computer, turning up the volume on her podcast, an English one, to block out any conversations and speculation she might hear.
She took a deep breath and turned back to the computer, turning up the volume on her podcast, an English one, to block out any conversations and speculation she might hear. Her resolve not to eavesdrop lasted until she heard Kristen say Mr. Evers name. Then Sophie couldn’t help but lower the volume to listen in.
“How did it go?” Kristen asked.
“They want Sophie for their project so she will be extra busy for a while,” Evers said.
“But…that’s not fair,” Kristen said. “How are the rest of us supposed to stay on schedule if she isn’t doing her share?”
On the other side of the wall Sophie frowned. ‘My share?’ she thought. The words almost burned her brain.
“It will only be temporary,” Evers assured her. “They just want her for set up. We can easily do extensions so that everything runs on time.”
After that Evers went back to his desk and Sophie decided she didn’t want to hear anything else. She turned off her podcast and put on some high energy music. Strangely enough the fast paced music managed to calm some of her anger at Evers and Kristen. Not all of it disappeared though and when everyone left for the day, Sophie still held back an additional ten minutes knowing that being stuck in an elevator with the others was not a good idea.
When her work day ended, Sophie left and went home. On the way she picked up some takeout as she was in no mood to cook. She was also in no frame of mind to sit and sketch while watching documentaries. Sophie looked at the sleep sets she created and realized she had more than enough sets for the following month’s order. “All caught up,” she told herself.
Sophie nodded. “Good,” she decided.
This wasn’t the day to be productive. She wanted something extra, something just for herself. She looked over her material and found some fabric she picked up because she couldn’t resist. As she ran her fingers over the cloth, Sophie mentally reviewed her designs. There was a dress she thought the material would be good for. It was more of a date night fancy dinner or cocktail party dress so she hadn’t gotten around to making it.
‘But I can make it and then make plans to go out to dinner in it,’ she decided. It was a bit more frivolous, but after her day, Sophie decided a little frivolous was a good thing. “I can’t be good all the time,” she told herself as she located the patterns she made and stretched out the fabric.
The project was good for her and by the time she went to bed, not only was she feeling calmer but she was well on her way to having a nice dress.
‘I’ll just have to make plans so that I can wear it somewhere,’ she told herself. “Maybe Janine will want to go out to dinner.’ Sophie knew she should make more of an effort to do something other than work at the office and then work at home, but with so many late hours at the office, she had gotten out of the habit of going anywhere that wasn’t necessary.
‘But I am not going to be working late,’ she thought as she got ready for bed.
Ten til Midnight 