Weekly Reading: Friday 21st June 2019

Today, you are going to write a few paragraphs to create your own ghostly setting.

The Link below is a clip from The Literacy Shed and is perfect for creating a sense of mystery and fear.

https://www.literacyshed.com/draculas-whitby.html

Remember to use lots of:
Adjectives
Adverbs
Similes
Metaphors
Personification

to really bring your description alive.

Below is a version which I worked on with one of my tutees:

Why was I here? I had known all along that this was a terrible idea, destined for disaster and misfortune. As I steadily climbed the winding path towards the imposing abbey on top of the hill, the wind whipped around my ears, bitter and unforgiving. 

Suddenly, out of nowhere, was a loud squawk. A Raven. Was it a sign? Had I come to meet my doom? Steadying myself once more, I pressed on. A few metres in front of me, a single lit lantern hung on a pillar, swinging precariously in the wind and casting ominous shadows onto the moonlit path. The furious sea roared beneath me as though warning me to turn back, but still I continued. An enormous oak tree, which was silhouetted against the light of the moon, reached out its branches, as though searching blindly for its next victim. To avoid being ensnared, I pressed my body against the cold, iron railings, the hard steel digging into the small of my back. Daring to look down, I saw that directly below me stood a neat row of tiny, freshly painted grave stones. They were clustered into one side of a carefully tended garden, whilst the other side lay bare, as though waiting for its time to serve its purpose.  

Breathing deeply, I clambered back over to the path and continued my ascent. Finally, I reached the imposing 600-year-old gate house and to my surprise, the wrought iron gate was ajar. I had envisioned that I would need to climb this and the simplicity of my errand began to unnerve me. Was some supernatural presence facilitating my entry to lure me to my death? Every inch of me knew that I ought to abandon my mission instantly before it was too late, but curiosity overcame me and I timidly stepped through, clutching the metal of the gate so hard that my knuckles were white.

As I entered the dilapidated courtyard, the first sight I encountered was of an enormous stone statue of a naked man. Oddly, the statue itself was clearly several hundred years old, yet somebody quite recently had adorned it with ivy, wrapping it loosely and idly around its neck and torso. I shuddered. This meant that somebody had been here. Were they still here now? I wrapped my coat tighter around myself for comfort.

I knew that I needed to get underground as soon as possible to avoid being discovered too soon. To my left was a small wooden door. Chancing my luck, I turned the handle and with an almost imperceptible click, it opened to reveal a narrow, stone tunnel. The flagstones beneath my feet were uneven and I was conscious of the clanging noise my shoes were making upon them. Slipping to my knees, I tried instead to slide along the freezing cold stone, catching my T-shirt in the process and biting down on my lip to avoid screaming out in pain.

At the end of the tunnel was the crypt. Silvery cobwebs hung from the wooden beams above my head, shining with the water which dripped rhythmically from above. The slow rhythmic dripping of the water was almost hypnotic and for a moment, I felt safer.