Nanowrimo

Context and Reflection

I chose an excerpt from my Nanowrimo piece. I chose this piece because I wrote this near the beginning of the year, so I still had poor writing skills. When I read this piece unrevised, I found my descriptions were weak. After I revised it this piece looked better. I think I got better at revising too. I think my writing improved a lot this year compared to last year.    

The Piece

James woke up when he heard a knock on the front door. He opened his eyes and looked at the clock besides his bed; it was 4:49 in the morning.

He heard the knock again.

“Why would anyone want to come to my house this early in the morning?” he wondered. He decided to ignore it, but the knocking became louder. Finally he climbed slowly out of the bed and quickly got dressed. Then he opened his bedroom door.

The house was still dark, it felt empty and cold. James turned on the light and started to climb down the stairs. The steps creaked under him as he took every step. He thought about going back to bed once or twice, but the knocking didn’t stop. So he kept going until he climbed off the last step.

His parents weren’t awake yet.

“Of course,” he thought. “It’s 4:50 in the morning, why would anyone be awake.” He walked up to the door and he reached his hand to the door handle. The knocking stopped. For a second he stood still, and then he opened the door.

No one was there. It was still dark outside, and the cold morning air made James want to go back inside. He looked down at the doorstep and found a small envelope laying there. He hesitated, then he bent over picked it up.

The envelope was completely blank. He opened the envelope and saw a piece of paper and a small golden key inside it. He tipped the mysterious objects onto his hand. He looked at the key first; it looked old, it was very simple looking, but he had a feeling that he was going to use it later. So he shoved it into his jeans pocket. James then looked closely at the paper, and he saw writing on it. It said;

Dear James,

I want you to come to the house on the end of the street by 7 o’clock. Use the key that was in the envelope to open the door. Do not let anyone know about it and make sure that you’re not being followed.

             It didn’t say who it was from or why James has to go there. He took the envelope back to his room and sat on his bed staring at the note. He decided not to tell his parents about the letter since it said not to tell anyone.

 

About the Author

My name is Ryuki Yamasaki and I’m 12 years old. I am a 7th grade student at Dewitt Middle School. I love fantasy books so I wrote a fantasy story. Compared to last year I think my writing skills have improved. Last year I used to have many run-on sentences, bad spelling and bad grammar. I was also really bad at describing too. Now I don’t have run-on sentences, decent spelling and grammar. In my whole Nanowrimo story I think I did a pretty good job describing things. 7th grade has made me a better writer.