Future Bestselling Authors March 27, 2008

I recently had the honor (and pleasure) of judging the Pencil Foundation’s Student Writers Showcase. This showcase is a writing competition for students (grades 3-12) in Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools. It is designed to encourage creativity, promote the importance of good communication skills, and complement and support the MNPS language arts curriculum. 

I judged the Short Story grade 7/8 category. Judges were asked to focus on creativity, quality of writing, character development, unity and command of the English language. I took my fifteen entries home over the Easter holiday expecting to make a few notes and choose my four top stories without much difficulty. After all, we were told the judging was our opinions—there were no right or wrong answers. 

I had no idea choosing my winners would turn into a three day ordeal. I was surprised that these stories were written by 12-14 year-olds. Not only did I scribble tons of notes in the margins, I found myself highlighting sentences that wowed me. Once I narrowed my fifteen stories to six, I emailed the coordinator of the competition and asked if it would be alright to publish selections from some of the stories on my blog. So with Ms. Troutman’s blessings, here are some excerpts from what I’m sure will be bestselling authors one day:

**(Remember these are 7th and 8th graders. There may be typos and minor grammar and spelling problems.)

• “The strongbox he had given her years before was his promise to never leave her—but that was before Germany began bombing London, lives were torn apart, and young men enlisted in the army…” 
• “I always knew that I would die this way, in my true love’s trembling hands. No, not in his hands, but by them. For he was a vampire.” 
• “I brushed aside the cascade of leafy vines that obscured the concrete gate from view.” 
• “He was coated in dried blood and dirt, giving him a look of something that had gotten stuck in some bad situations.” 
• “No matter how hard you fight in life, we all die in the end, and today was my day.” 
• “Ten crew members held on tight to anything available in order to stay on the floor of the rumbling monster.” 
• “As the impact loomed ahead, his pulse quickened and he grew very anxious. He watched the ground becoming more clearly defined. They passed low over trees, dense woods, and a thick layer of fog.” 
• “Hostility and repugnance created a line between and the whites.” 
• “The hate was splayed across the face[s] of the whites. The pride was strewn onto the faces of the marching black[s].”  
• “I feel her eyes acknowledging my self-inflicted scars that are etched up and sown my arms and the purple-blue markings wrapped around my body.” 
• “I watch as her fingers pound furiously against the keys, but it’s not beautiful music I hear.” 
• “No scream escaped me, but this was no act of bravery, no noble gesture to die with honor, for I had no energy and no honor.” 
• “I did not laugh at death, but welcomed its silent embrace as an escape from the torture that was living.” 
• “A small stone collided with my jaw, sending waves of pain through my head.”

They’re out to a good start, don’t you think?