Welcome to the Fifteen Minute Novel. Each morning I spend fifteen minutes writing on a singular story line. Each morning starts with the last line of the previous day. The goal is to get a (very) rough draft out of the simple story idea and to avoid letting the story idea languish in limbo forever, actually writing it out. This is the third year I have done this writing experiment and each year I learn just a little bit about myself and the way I write as well as creating a framework for the story. But without further ado…
Day 102: “Thanks,” Gwen said. “That really helps.
“Thanks,” Gwen said. “That really helps.” Gwen took the list and when Margaret left she settled herself on the center of the bed with her laptop. The calendar function was paired with her e-mail, but she never really used it. She had a paper calendar she used for school as she liked to scribble the assignments on the days. Since she was using that anyway, she went ahead and added her work schedule and anything else she needed to put onto it as well.
“But I don’t have that anymore,” she reminded herself. She threw out the planner at the end of the school year when she cleaned up and got rid of things. She had planned to keep it and add the summer classes she planned to take into the mix, but after everything fell apart she didn’t see any reason to keep it.
Gwen shook her head. “It doesn’t matter,” she said. “I can use this one.”
She clicked on the tab to bring it up. The empty calendar was somewhat daunting. It came up on the month. An entirely blank month. Gwen took a deep breath. “Not blank for long. She shifted to a weekly schedule view as that seemed less daunting and she began to fill in what she knew, starting with her morning runs and ending with her meeting Michael in the park. Once that was done, she added in the newly scheduled classes, one in baking and one in regular cooking.
With that added, Gwen looked at the papers Margaret handed her. One was a list of events and the other was the information about art classes. She decided to start with the scheduled events.
As Gwen typed them in, she found that they were mostly dinners. They seemed to center around charity events and the various organizations to which her grandparents belonged. The art gallery they visited today had an event scheduled at the end of the month in fact.
“Not too bad in general,” Gwen said. She wasn’t entirely sure what she expected her grandmother to schedule but this wasn’t that bad. There were only a hand full of events and they stopped at the end of the summer. There was nothing on the list dated after August first.
Gwen knew it was only because she committed to staying for the summer with the possibility of expanding it for the year, but somehow the list ending at August first seemed like a deadline. The date by which she had to figure out her life. Gwen shook the thought away and typed in the last of the dates. To distract herself, she then looked at the list of art classes.
She enjoyed drawing and had in fact wanted to take more art classes. She had even been encouraged by her art teacher to do so. Lisa had not been interested and Sharron was not willing to take her on her own. It was before she could drive herself, and by the time she could drive herself, other thoughts occupied her.
“So maybe a drawing class,” Gwen said. She wasn’t sure she was ready for a major class like oils or sculpting, but she thought a basic drawing class would be interesting. ‘It would at least let me know if I still like it.’
There were several basic at classes listed and Gwen chose the one that didn’t conflict with anything else scheduling. Noting that she needed to either pay a fee or submit a membership number, as classes were free to members, Gwen again left the bedroom to get the information from her grandparents. Margaret was thrilled and after getting the information, Gwen called in and made a note to call in when their offices opened in the morning. She added the class to her schedule anyway even though it would be official in the morning.
Ten til Midnight 