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 115: The rest of the day flowed without interruption.
The rest of the day flowed without interruption. Sophie found herself missing her water bottle, both at lunch and in the afternoon, but when she arrived home she found it had been delivered in her absence and the box was with the rest of her mail. Sophie made herself dinner and when washing her dinner dishes made certain to wash out the new water bottle before settling herself down on the couch with her sketch pad. From the list of feelings Sophie chose confident and after spending a little time thinking about what sort of outfit might display confidence, she got to sketching. She came up with three potential designs before she was too tired to continue.
To Sophie’s delight, the rest of the week passed with a blurring wave of normality. She went to the office, typed in the files and put the finished files in the cabinet. She took the elevator in, she took the elevator out and on Friday she met with her supervisor. Elizabeth was happy with her progress and Sophie was told to continue before being sent back down. She didn’t ask about Kristen and the others and found she didn’t care. With the office a calm and productive place, Sophie was able to simply work while she was in the office and leave it all behind when she clocked out.
‘If it stays this way I will be very happy,’ she decided. Friday night Sophie set her drawings to the side and instead watched a movie. The movie was a historical romance and while the plot was too simplistic to hold her attention for very long, Sophie did pause on occasion to sketch out a little bit of the embroidered patterns she saw on the clothing.
‘I suppose even bad acting is good for something,’ she thought as she pushed play and let the movie resume. ‘Although I doubt the actors think of their role as being a way to show off embroidery.’ As one of the actors tended to move more like a mannequin come to life she found a bit of amusement in the rather wooden performance.
Knowing Janine would be at her door bright and early to head out to the flea market, Sophie made it an early night and headed to bed as she would on a work night rather than staying up later. It felt like only moments after she went to bed that Sophie’s alarm went off. For a moment she stared at it and wondered if she could ignore it in favor of a few more hours. Then she remembered Janine.
Sophie slipped out of bed and after a visit to the bathroom, set her coffee on to brew as she got dressed. By the time Janine was at the door, Sophie had her coffee in a travel mug and her wallet in her purse. As instructed, she had secured cash for this venture and had it in a bank envelope in the zippered pocket of her purse. The purse was a cross body one so she wouldn’t have to worry about holding on to it or accidentally setting it down.
Janine was fairly bouncing on her feet with excitement as Sophie locked her front door and they went down the stairs.
“At the moment you remind me of Tigger from Winnie the Pooh,” Sophie said as they went to Janine’s car. She drove an SUV that was rather on the large side. She bought it so she could haul most things she needed to move without renting a van. Sophie wondered what Janine planned to buy ass she fastened her seatbelt and let Janine drive them off to the morning’s adventure.
Ten til Midnight 