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 154: “No, actually that’s my husband pulling in now,” she said indicating a car turning into the lot.
“No, actually that’s my husband pulling in now,” she said indicating a car turning into the lot. With Linda’s husband’s arrival and everything else sorted out, Sophie was finally able to leave. She was told that if anything was needed from her they would get it on Monday. She was happy to finally make her escape from work.
Sophie tried to settle as she drove home. Her plans for the night were derailed by the drama and she was worried she would take it out on the garment. Sophie thought about setting t to the side and finishing it up in the morning, but there was so little left to do that she could feel the excitement of competing not only the garment but the collection lurking.
“It’s just sewing and not any more design adjustments,” she told herself. I’ll sew it and then order a pizza or something after to celebrate. Even though she was already later than she liked to eat dinner, she felt good about the plan and a soon a she changed out of her work clothes, she went into her work room.
As expected there wasn’t much left to do and ass she worked, Sophie found herself settling. The stitching without needing to adjust the design was soothing and relaxing. It required less thought than she expected and she was soon calm and settled in her own skin, the drama once again put behind her.
It took little time to complete the garment and Sophie carefully hung the finished garment on the rack with the rest of her collection.
“My first collection,” she said. She gave grandly dramatic sweep of her arms with a deep bow to an imaginary audience. She smiled and looked over the rack. Seeing all of the garments hanging there gave her a thrill.
‘Definitely doing this again, even if it isn’t for anyone but me.” she decided. Her stomach rumbled. “And now for celebratory pizza.”
Sophie ordered her pizza knowing she would have more left over to eat the following day and sat down on the couch. As she waited for the pizza to arrive, she picked up the remote and flipped through the available streaming sites, navigating finally to a movie that looked like it might be interesting. She knew better than to not put something on that she had to follow as she expected she would turn over the parking lot incident if she didn’t.
The movie she chose was Italian with subtitles. She wondered if she would be able to follow along without the subtitles and when the pizza arrived and she settled it on the coffee table with he settled on the couch, she turned off the subtitles. Without them she had to focus. There was no thinking about Kristen and her temper tantrum and overly indulged self. She understood most of what was being said, but she had to actually pay attention to it. On occasion she had to resort to the subtitles, but by the time the episode she was watching finished, she was pleased that she only needed the subtitles four times.
“Which means my Italian is getting better,” she decided. She cleaned up from dinner and decided to watch one more episode before bed.
The next morning, Sophie got up and felt elated. She showered and dressed and then wheeled her rack of clothing into the living room.
Ten til Midnight 