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 102: Sophie smiled to herself.
Sophie smiled to herself. She didn’t mind not being a designer. She was happy with the garments she made. ‘And the designs are getting more interesting,’ she thought. Now that she wasn’t focusing on where the garment could be worn but on how the cloth moved and what designers worked with that movement rather than a specific place her designs were changing. She took inspiration from the designs of others, but less of what she was doing now involved altering those designs to suit.
‘It might be interesting to pick an emotion and just go for it.’
Sophie reached the apartment building, parked and went upstairs. She let herself in and made a simple dinner. As she ate she took a notepad and pen and started making a list of emotions. She listed as many as she could, using as many varied words as she could think of.
‘Not sure what designs I would come up with for Envy, greed or truculence,’ she decided as she set her pen down and took her plate to the sink. She cleaned up from dinner and after a quick change settled herself with her sketch pad and pencil on the couch. She spent some time thinking about the list and then just decided to pick one at random. She set the list on the coffee table, closed her eyes and circled her finger around letting it plonk down on the page. Sophie opened her eyes.
“Optimism,” She read. “I’m not sure that is even properly an emotion. Still it is on the list. So, let’s create an optimistic design.”
She spent a delightful few hours trying to sketch out various outfits that might convey a sense of optimism. She ended up with several that she liked by the time she was yawning and ready for bed. Part of her wanted to pick another emotion and let it percolate through her brain but she decided against it. ‘Optimism seems a good note to sleep on anyway.’
Sophie slept well and in the morning went though her normal routine, pushing herself in the gym more to test if she did need to change things rather than because she wanted to work out her work stress. After, she returned to her apartment showered dressed and went off to work. Kristen rolled her eyes as she walked past and Sophie ignored her. She made it to her desk and set her bag down.
‘I wonder if you can consider petulance an emotion,’ Sophie wondered. She slipped out a piece of paper and wrote petulance on it. Underneath she wrote sullenness and then smugness.
Ten til Midnight 