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 118: It gave Sophie a lot to think about.
It gave Sophie a lot to think about. After lunch, Janine left and Sophie debated whether to start on a new sleep set or to spend time organizing. The addition of the new dresser would provide her with the space she needed, but to get it in, things had to be shifted around and it was a mess.
Plus I need to wipe it down as well as the rack before I use them for my things. Knowing she wouldn’t be able to focus on anything until her workspace was returned to at least a manageable lefl of order, she decided the rest of the day would be spent organizing.
‘With sewing tomorrow,’ she decided. Sophie left her drawings out on the kitchen table, figuring they would at least be out of the way there. She then took her vacuum into the workroom and began the first round of cleaning. The vacuum took out all of the larger particles and bits. There were a few dead flies in on of the bottom drawers that she was quite happy to let the machine deal with.
Once any larger bits were taken out, Sophie went in with a damp[ cloth to remove any of the little bits and make sure there was nothing that could transfer. The left the drawers out so what little moisture was on them could dry and then took out a selection of pretty papers she often used to wrap her sleep sets before they were shipped out. She cut the paper into rectangles and fitted the paper into the bottom of each drawer. She didn’t want the paper flopping around, but wasn’t sure she wanted it permanent just yet, so she used a little sticky tack in the corners to make sure the paper stayed in place.
‘Sometime I might want to get the piece refinished so it is prettier,’ she decided. ‘But not now.’ For now it was enough that it was functional and not likely to transfer dust and dirt to her materials.
“Although I think various sundries and tools might be better than storing material,’ she decided. As she had small boxes of buttons, zippers, thread spools and embroidery floss, not to mention assorted pins and needles stashed around the room, she thought it would be good to house them all in once place.
“And it leaves more storage for materials elsewhere.”
Sophie moved around the room gathering the various supplies from the places she had them stashed. She placed all of them on her worktable and then started separating them into categories. Once she could see how many of each type of thing she had, she eyed the drawers and thought about how best to organize them.
The process took more time than she thought, but in the end, Sophie was pleased. She could open one of the drawers and see all of her thread lined up by color. At the moment all the colors were together in their ranges. The different shades of blue were in one row with the shades of green in another. ‘Hopefully I can keep it that way,’ Sophie thought. ‘It will at least be nice to know where things are without going hunting. Or buying a new version of something I already have,’ she thought eyeing the three identical spools of forest green thread.
She knew she would use it for many of the fall items ass green was a popular color, but as she just purchased the last spool the weekend before because she couldn’t find her green thread, Sophie was pleased she could see them in a row. While the cabinet was now neat, the rest of her sewing room was a disaster.
Ten til Midnight 