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 101: There was an air of smugness in the tone that Sophie knew would probably set Kristen off.
There was an air of smugness in the tone that Sophie knew would probably set Kristen off. Sophie heard Carrie move off and Kristen mutter insults just loud enough for Carrie to hear. Deciding that was probably all of the gossip, Sophie turned her podcast on and got back to work.
While there was a part of her that just wished that Kristen would be fired outright, she knew that was mostly because she just didn’t like Kristen and thought there would be less drama in her workday if Kristen wasn’t there.
‘I somehow suspect that a calm office environment isn’t a high priority for her.’ Kristen seemed to thrive on creating drama.
Knowing more or less what went on let Sophie set it to the side. She worked the rest of the day without giving the rest of the office much thought. At the end of the day, she didn’t bother staying an extra few minutes to let the others take the elevator first and instead left on time with the rest of them. Sophie entered the elevator and detected a less than happy atmosphere. Each of her coworkers seemed to distance themselves from the others.
‘I wonder if Kristen and Ryan still have a thing going,’ Sophie thought. At the moment neither was looking at the other so she doubted they would be happily continuing whatever was going on at the moment even if they picked it up again later. ‘I guess knowing you are in competition for a job takes the shine off,’ Sophie thought.
It was not a comfortable elevator ride, but it was mercifully short. When the doors opened they each stepped out and Sophie watched the others hurry towards their vehicles as though worried one of the others might actually try to talk to them. Sophie walked to her car and was happy to let it go. She was happy to switch her thoughts to an idea she had inspired by a section in her pod cast. It dealt with designing for a feeling. It was a designer talking about his work. He was one Sophie liked but rarely copied as she liked the aesthetic more as one would like art rather than something she wanted to wear.
She liked the look of it, but it looked very uncomfortable and somewhat impractical. It was stylized clothing for a fantasy realm rather than wearable.
‘But I like taking a feeling and designing something that represents it,’ Sophie thought as she drove. She knew that no matter how fanciful she got with her designs she was just to o practically minded a person to design a piece of clothing that was more art than clothing. She could make designs with artistic flare but a part of her always kept a toehold on real time wear.
‘Probably why I will never be a great designer,’ she thought. Sophie smiled to herself.
Ten til Midnight 