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 191: It was time to make a list.
It was time to make a list. Sophie took her pen and wrote out a list of everything that she needed to do before she actually left town. After making the list, she tapped the pen against the page. There was always the possibility that Janine might take orders from the company. “Letting her know dates is top priority.”
Sophie reached for her phone and pressed the buttons to call Janine. While she was saved under J she was also one of the most frequent numbers she called so it took little effort to call. Janine picked up on the second ring.
“Hey,” Sophie said after the initial salutations. “I am going to be going on vacation so I need to set cut off dates for taking orders. I will have an order to you for the sleep wear before I leave for the following month so there is no worry, but I won’t be able to take additional orders until I get back.”
Janine wrote down the dates as Sophie rattled them off and promised to stop by at the end of the week to hear all about the details of the upcoming trip. As Sophie could tell she was not in the mood to talk, she let he go and set the phone to the side.
“So I’ve got one thing checked off my list,” Sophie took her list to her calendar and began planning her schedule.
There was something satisfying in seeing everything blocked out, the hectic schedule ending in a spot of blank nothingness for two weeks. “Especially since I know what is coming in those blank two weeks.”
She smiled and having done all the planning she could, Sophie moved to her sewing room to start working on checking items off of her list.
In the morning Sophie found herself waking up early, eager to get going on things. She made it through her work out and even finished showering and dressing for the office ahead of schedule. She thought about lingering over a second cup of coffee but decided that a little early to work wouldn’t be a bad thing. She made certain the dates of her trip were in her bag and off to the office she went. The office was quiet when she arrived, the others not yet in the building. She Sent an e-mail off to Elizabeth with her schedule and unlocked her files.
‘I’m going to need to see Janine about more high energy music,’ Sophie thought as she got started. She suspected the paly lists she had now would grow old fast. She worked until lunch and then over a shortened lunch, she used her phone to search for places she wanted to visit in Milan. She began scratching out a list of places of interest and promised herself that she would look up times of operation and possible entrance fees once she got home.
“Well after I’ve finished my scheduled work for the evening,” she told herself. As she had already found more things she wanted to see than the length of her trip allowed, she knew it would be more a whittling down of wants into something that she could do without making herself feel as though she was on a strict schedule.
‘The schedule will be strict enough before I take the vacation.’
Sophie finished her sandwich, set aside her phone and got back to work.
Ten til Midnight 