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 169: Sophie looked at the schedule she created.
Sophie looked at the schedule she created. It would require she stay on track rather than giving herself evenings off because work was stressful, but she thought she could do it. ‘And I am caught up from being gone so I should be on a set and even pathway.’
It was a good feeling to see the schedule. ‘And I can work this weekend to get as far as I can first.’ It was with a lighter mind that she put away her things, made a quick sandwich and got to work. The weekend slipped away and soon enough she was facing Monday morning.
‘Welcome back,’ Kevin said when she entered the gym. A sheen of sweat covered him and he was out of breath. “Missed you.”
“Had to catch up,” she told him. “Now I am I can go back to routine.”
He nodded and began his cool down as she set up and began her warm up. Her body reminded her that she skipped a few days of her morning work out but soon enough the internal protests stopped and she found her rhythm. By then Kevin was done and heading out. he waved and Sophie nodded.
She sweated through her workout and made it through. As she went back to her apartment, she wondered how taking just a few days off could make such a difference. ‘It was literally just too mornings,’ she complained to her body. ‘How could you dislike going back so much?’
As she showered and dressed random old lessons about inertia slipped through her mind. Sophie shook them off, dressed and left for the office. There was a relief in coming in with everyone instead of her own, however she knew if she had to choose she would still come in early rather than stay late.
‘Much better to miss the work out than to cut into my sewing time.’ She settled herself at the desk with the new set of files, pleased that they were entirely new files and not any left over from her time away. It was nice to slip in a podcast and work at her normal pace instead of a frantic one fueled by faced paced music. The day felt less rushed, less crushed and ass a result by the time she ended her day, she felt like she had put in a good days work not been outracing a runaway truck.
When she arrived home, she changed, made a quick dinner and checked the schedule she had posted on he fridge. She ran through the items she needed to check off of the list before bed as she ate. Then she washed her dishes and got to work. As she worked, Sophie found she didn’t mind having a schedule. She wouldn’t mind a bit more leeway, but the schedule made her feel as though her sewing hobby was actually more of an income producing endeavor rather than something she simply spent money on.
“I don’t think I’d want a schedule this tight all the time though,” she decided ass she paused to stretch. “Luckily it won’t be,” she knew that after she created the limited run garments she would go back to her regular sleep sets and have time to start some sketches for some wintery garments. As many of the materials she picked up were inspiring, she was already starting to turn some ideas over in her head.
Creating items from patterns she already created was easier than creating first the patterns and then the initial test garment. She knew her patterns worked and just had to replicate them. As a result she worked quickly and had the leisure to let her mind turn over possible design ideas.
Ten til Midnight 