For those just tuning in, this challenge is about taking a story idea from bare bones idea into a fully fledged story by writing consistently every week day for fifteen minutes. The sentence I end with on one day, is the sentence I start with on the following. Part one was Bob’s story and has nothing whatsoever to do with the story below. Part Two follows a character named Penelope. I have a few basic sentences to act as road marks on her journey. I am loosely calling that an outline. We will see where she ends up by the time the story is done. For now, we start Part two of the 2025 Fifteen Minute Writing Challenge.
Day 111: She took another deep breath and tried to focus everything she had inside on her two most pressing needs.
She took another deep breath and tried to focus everything she had inside on her two most pressing needs. She wasn’t entirely certain how magic worked but she thought focusing wasn’t a bad place to start. ‘And the books moved once before.’ She thought trying to squelch the feeling of being silly.
“I need to learn control and find out who my family enemies are so I know who to trust,” Penelope said loudly. She put as much command into her voice as possible, filling it with her need and her desire. She took another deep breath and then jumped a little as the books on the shelves began moving. It looked like a small earthquake except that only the books were moving. They were sort of dancing on the shelves. The small ornaments were shaking but only in relation to the books dancing about on the shelves. Their movement caused the shelves to vibrate.
Penelope turned slowly letting her gaze skim the shelves. ‘My request can’t apply to all of the books,’ she thought. All of the books seem to be moving just the same, none more so than any others giving her no idea which to choose. She wondered if she should narrow her search. A thought occurred.
“Can you tell me how to find out if Mrs. Merriweather is a friend who can be trusted?” she asked.
A book shot out of the shelves and fell to the floor. The other books instantly stopped moving. The fallen book opened when it hit the ground and when Penelope walked over she could see the page heading. “Determining the intentions of others,” she read.
Penelope picked up the book. She let out a slow sigh of relief. “Thank you,” she said figuring it couldn’t hurt. She took the book over to the reading chair and sat down. If she could find one person she could trust then she could hopefully get some help figuring out what to actually do. There were so many options and she was uncertain of any of them.
Penelope settled in to read. It was a bit more complex than she expected. She had never thought of magic spells as a practical exercise before. She just thought magic and that wa it. Had she thought about it, Penelope would have thought either a magic wand was waved or someone chucked things into a boiling caldron while cackling over it in the moonlight.
This seemed to be more of a mental exercise. She had to focus on a specific person and a specific scenario. The book was quite detailed as to why, which she appreciated.
‘Because [people can have all sorts of motivations for all sorts of things going at the same time,’ Penelope summed up as she read. ‘And a lot of it is perspective. What one person sees as good another can see as bad.’
Penelope nodded, a lot of the explanations making sense.
Ten til Midnight 