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 132: Tuesday began as usual and when she went to lunch, the gossip was mostly about Brenda’s son receiving acceptance letters to all three of the universities he applied to for the fall.
Tuesday began as usual and when she went to lunch, the gossip was mostly about Brenda’s son receiving acceptance letters to all three of the universities he applied to for the fall. It was a relief that Kristen and Ryan had once more fallen off the radar. With such family gossip the focus, Sophie enjoyed her trip out with the others more. She returned to her desk, finished out her lunch and got back to work.
With everything in the office fading back to normal, Sophie again left the office at the office as soon as she left for the day. As was becoming habit, she ate a quick dinner, worked on the commissioned pieces and then when she felt she had done enough, reached for her drawings to finalize her designs. By the time the work week was over, Sophie was ready to take her designs to her test fabric. Friday she set up her patterns and she spent the weekend working on the project, adding a second garment to the rack by the time it was ready to get ready for work again.
The pattern became her normal. Some weekends she added a movie or a dinner out. Occasionally, she went to a museum exhibit or to restock her necessary sundries at the Fabric Emporium. But by the end of almost every weekend, she added another piece to the growing collection on her rack. There were a few weekends where she didn’t quite make it, and instead of rushing allowed herself to use Monday night to complete the new garment.
As the garments accumulated, Sophie felt a growing sense of pride. Taken together, the garments actually looked like a collection. It no longer felt strange to think of them that way as it had when she began.
Spring slipped into summer and with it came high heat and humidity. While the television boasted ads about outdoor events and people participating in them, this summer was too hot and humid for anyone to really enjoy being outside for any length of time. Sophie occasionally ventured out but found that even if she hadn’t been involved in a project, she would find an excuse not to go out.
While the ads may have pictured sports, hikes, swimming and picnics, the news featured hat index warnings and the dangers of over exertion. She was told to hydrate and apply SPF regularly. ‘Its good to have a project,’ she thought. ‘And I’ll do more when the weather breaks.’
Sophie found it amusing that as she completed the last of the dressing gowns requested for the holiday specials, the weathermen reported record breaking heat. People were advised to check on pets and elderly neighbors and above all hydrate. ‘It’s a funny world,’ she thought as she took the completed dressing gowns to Janine for shipping.
Ten til Midnight 