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 122: Linda looked around to make sure that no one was near them. “I heard Kristen isn’t taking it well. She was named as the person he was having an affair with in the paperwork.”
Linda looked around to make sure that no one was near them. “I heard Kristen isn’t taking it well. She was named as the person he was having an affair with in the paperwork.” As her co-workers chatted about the ramifications of Kristen’s anger at being linked to the divorce, Sophie hoped her name wasn’t mentioned. She was certain that Kevin passed the message on but that was as involved as she wanted to be.
‘Shouldn’t have even done that,’ she thought. But Sophie knew she would do it again anyway. ‘It’s not like they weren’t going to get divorced and I put the thought of it in her head. I just let her know there was something she might want to think about with her timing.’
It didn’t make her feel less worried and she really hoped that there was no mention of her.
“I’ve been meaning to ask you,” Linda said when they reached the food trucks and were standing in line. “Where did you get that green top you were wearing last week. It’s fantastic.”
“Oh thanks,” Sophie said with a smile. It was nice to talk about something she liked. “I made it,” she said. “I have a little sewing business on the side.”
“Really? Do you sell to a shop here?” Linda asked.
“There are two on-line shops I sell to,” Sophie said. “I can give you the websites if you’d like,”
“That would be great,” Linda said. “I am looking for a gift for my sister’s birthday,” she said.
“Well, if neither shop has anything, let me know and maybe we can work on something suitable,”
“I will, thanks,” Linda said. They got their lunch and headed back to the office, before they went their separate ways, Sophie wrote down but the website address for Janine’s site as well as the on-line store she was working with.
“Most of my stuff is the sleepwear sections at the moment,” she told Linda. “Once I finish the last of the dressing gowns for fall I will be starting on some new pieces.”
“Look forward to it.”
Linda left and Sophie found herself pleased and also a little nervous about letting her co-workers know about the sites. She tended to keep he work ad after work activities quite separate. ‘Still it is nice to share a bit. Besides, she is probably just being nice. She’ll probably put the address in a drawer and forget it.’
Sophie decided to forget about it and went back to her office. She ate her lunch, then after washing her hands, got back to work. The afternoon flowed smoothly and when she left work, Sophie switched gears completely, thinking about the sewing business instead. As she drove home, she counted up the number of sleep sets she needed to create in order to stay on track and how much she had left to do on the dressing gowns.
‘If I work on them all this week, I should be able to complete the list and shift into my own designs. One of her emotional designs kept circling through her head as though demanding to be worked on. ‘Maybe I can take a little time before bed each night to play with it.
Ten til Midnight 