It’s National Novel Writing Month, and my 8th grade Honors students are joining me in the writing challenge taken on by thousands of students across the country. They are shooting for 10,000 words in their stories, while I’m aiming for 30,000.
We spend a couple weeks in advance prepping for this, just like you would a race. We do little things to get ready for the sprint that November becomes. One thing we talk about is how to start your story. There are a lot of ways to approach this, and I thought I’d give you two examples.
Here is one way to start my story this year. Enjoy!
Fog rose above the desolate landscape, rolling this way and that as the wind gusted across the murky lake. Mountains towered above the valley, surrounding what used to be a green and vibrant part of nature, now reduced to ash and broken trees. The sun was covered by darkening clouds, but no rain was in sight.
It wasn’t just fog that was seeping into everything around, but smoke. Smoke from the fires that smoldered all around and smoke that blew in from the tops of the mountains. The smoke and fog mingled, creating an atmosphere that was nearly unbreathable. A frog lay next to the water, croaking softly, fading to death.
The wind picked up to such a fierce gale that an anemophobic would have cowered in terror. As the wind continued to increase, a giant specter soared over the mountains. Its massive wings flapped as it dove toward the water, smoke trailing it. As the wings opened again, a giant hole was seen in the left one, tattered and bleeding.
It was a dragon, one of the mighty beasts who ruled the land, intelligent creatures who outsized anything living on the earth. This one was golden red with tendrils trailing from the sides of its great maw. As the elongated mouth opened, puffs of smoke came out, but no flame was evident, as was usual with the serpents. The yellow snake-like eyes opened and closed rapidly, trying to keep moist. The scales along its body rippled as it plummeted at a trajectory aimed for the little bit of water remaining in the lake.
As the dragon splashed into the water, a giant rush of steam soared into the air, as the water evaporated from the heat produced by the mighty beast. Only puddles remained now, and the dragon rolled onto its side, breathing heavily, eyes fluttering shut. Nearby, the frog breathed its last.
Another dragon flew high over the mountains, this one a silver-blue color, craning its neck, searching for something. As it looked downward, it quickly changed course to move toward the fallen dragon. The new dragon on the scene was larger than the first one by 500 pounds. It alighted near the nearly-comatose dragon and snorted, small bouts of flame coming out of its nostrils. It took a step closer and sniffed, trying to sense the condition of the first dragon.
With a sudden roar, the golden-red dragon swiped its tail, catching the silver-blue off guard. It quickly followed with a lunge, biting at the neck of the newcomer. However, it barely grazed the scales protecting the long neck before the silver-blue moved backward. Realizing the surprise was lost, the golden-red one flapped into the air, trying to hurry away, knowing its plight was desperate.
And useless. The silver-blue quickly rose behind it and measured its assault. A huge rush of flame caught the golden-red dragon from behind and scorched its hindquarters. The receiver of the flame bellowed in pain; some of its scales had been torn off in the battle that was a precursor to this final confrontation.
The golden-red dragon came to a decision. It was better to die fighting than fleeing. It reared around in mid-air and faced off with its nemesis, knowing its time was short. The silver-blue dragon narrowed its eyes and flung itself forward, snorting in supposed triumph.
The golden-red dived downward, flinging its tail up to try and damage the underbelly of its foe. The tail had sharp spikes on the end, three of them to try to loosen scales and allow the soft skin under them to be in view and vulnerable. A couple of scales did loosen, and the silver-blue uttered a grunt of pain, flipping itself around to chase, once again, the golden-red.
As the smaller dragon flew toward the mountains nearby, it spotted a flash of light, then another. It narrowed its eyes, wondering what that could be. It knew that humans lived in the area in small colonies, but hadn’t known that some of those communities were located high up in the mountain range. Desperate, and not knowing if these humans were loyal to the ruling family of dragons or not, the golden-red moved in the direction of the light. Just in case these were insurrectionists, it might have a chance. There were rumors of magic and weapons that could hurt even the largest dragons.
Before it could reach the distant opening in the side of the mountain to which it had aimed, the silver-blue caught up to it, the tattered wing holding back the golden-red. The larger dragon opened its jaws and chomped down on the tail of the golden-red, swinging back and forth to try to deter the forward progress of its enemy.
Suddenly, a flash of light bloomed out from the side of the mountain. Both dragons were blinded by the light, and their forward momentum was stopped, dropping them like rocks to the rising landscape below. The golden-red lay still, while the silver-blue moaned and tried to get back up. However, the latter couldn’t get its footing and was too befuddled to think about flying. Another blast of light hit it and caused it to tumble farther down the side of the mountain, ending up near the bottom.
A rumble rose from the mountain, the high hill disturbed by the clashing dragons. Giant boulders started to roll down the side as an avalanche developed quickly and just as quickly buried the two dragons under its onslaught.
High above, faces peered downward from the opening in the mountain from whence had come the flashes of light. They gazed at where the dragons had landed until the avalanche was complete. Once the dust settled, the faces faded back into the cave.
Intrigued? So am I! Next week, I’ll show you another way to start that’s completely different!
Word of the Week: This week’s word is anemophobic, which means someone with a fear of wind, as in, “Living in Minnesota was not a great place for an anemophobic person, as evidenced by all the wind turbines.” Impress your friends and confuse your enemies!