Write about a terrifying experience or a premonition of dread. (The Tom Sawyer story, pp 21-22)
You may be lost in a storm, be threatened by a fire, or you have lost your way in the dark. (See Pearl’s interview with Chelsea Watts Parker). Or your beloved cat or dog has disappeared.
Explore a range of emotions (grief, loss, fear; enjoyable memories)
Use several senses. (dark – smell, touch, hearing, and sight – dark shadows)
Describe contrasting characters. Include their conversation.
Explore two different mindsets/attitudes to the problem/fear.
Scenario
Alice has just moved into her new house and is enjoying the space with her two cats, Sage and Sian. The only problem is that the house is on a busy road. There is an under the house area, a nice garden and a few strange cupboards.
On one particular night Alice rings up all her friends, parents and …
She cannot find one of her cats – Sage. She has searched the garden. It is getting dark. She adores Sage (she is special in so many ways) and fears that Sage has run onto the road.
She has a premonition of dread. She blames herself for moving to a place on a busy road.
Her Mum and Dad arrive at her place just as it is getting dark, and they help her search for the cat- to no avail.
Describe their efforts, their conversation and their search.
Mum and Dad go home.
At midnight, they receive a phone call from Alice.
Beginning:
“Mum”, cried Alice blubbering fitfully, as her mum rushed in the door. “Mum. She’s she’s she’s go–ne.”
Mum was trying to gain her breath. She had rushed to Alice’s upon receiving the fateful phone call about dear lost Sage.
Two opposing characters
Two different attitudes: Alice is panicked and her Mum is trying to reassure her.
Refer to:
See Vocab Builder: use new words
- See pp 36-37; note how Dickens uses punctuation (Scrooge/Christmas Carol)
- See pp 55 and 57; tone words (how a person talks)
- See pp 52-53: describing people
- Grammar Check, pp 52-53, “Rules of Dialogue”
Please see: The English Works Short Classics Anthology