Written by: Mika and Azalea 8X
Translated by: Rebecca 8Y
In the spirit of Halloween, Dyatmika’s Class 8 students have been practising how to make our story settings and descriptions more vivid and terrifying by learning about the Gothic Genre and its main features. We did several activities to improve our writing skills and understanding of the genre, such as: exploring how authors and filmmakers create a tense atmosphere, revising our understanding of frightening figurative language, through the use of morbid metaphors, sinister similes, petrifying personifications, ominous onomatopoeias and writing a spine-tingling description of the Eel Marsh House from the movie The Woman in Black! Finally, we read an extract from the novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley and explored how the author creates suspense.
Here is a short example of the work we’ve been doing – only read it if you’re brave enough!
Awkwardly, I stood on the balls of my feet and watched as the grey darkness engulfed the carriage I had arrived with. The cold had been nipping at my fingers and from the corner of my eyes, I could see that they’d already begun to turn blue. As I walked, the dead leaves under my feet crunched and folded. I stopped. Straining my eyes, I saw a peculiar stone shape. I didn’t know it at the time, but it was a gravestone. I wondered why the carriage driver didn’t want to go any further, there was enough space. Ignoring the fact that my heart was in my throat, I marched on. Finally, the decrepit house came into view. The door swung open with a moan and the tangy taste of dust settled on my lips. I couldn’t hear a single thing; it was deadly quiet…