RICHMOND YOUNG WRITERS
Session TWO!

Miles Barnett

Exquisite Corpse

There once was a chicken that liked to eat ribbon. One day the chicken choked on some. Then the chicken died a slow and painful death by slowly getting its head chopped off. The farmer who butchered the chicken sliced his own finger too, and poured cayenne in the wound to slow the flow of blood into the kitchen sink. Ouch! And he ate his finger cuz he thought it was sausage and chopped off all the rest and ate them. Then he had no fingers to walk on, so he had to walk with his feet and all the blood started to rush to his head. His head grew large from all the pressure. And then it fell off, into the sea of an element- the element of surprise! The head floated until element of surprise sharks came and fought over the head that fell off. The ghost of the chicken came and saved the head from the sharks.

Hannah Beauregard

Apple

An apple so flat, but with wonderful streaks of color

As if it is a painting or someone is trying to give it some excitement

As someone bites into the apple it turns into a plain mountain

And at the same time it is as if the apple had lost something special

And as you leave the apple out it turns sad or depressed with a brownish color inside

Nechama Ben-Ezra

Beatrice Connell

Billy Farrar

The Worst Gift Fairytale

It is December 24, 1582. There is a young boy that is a KIT (Knight in Training). This boy wants a new sword because he lost his last one in a battle. He is in his bed trying to go to sleep, because he can't wait till tomorrow because tomorrow is Christmas and hopefully his parents will give him a new sword. But the thing is, he never told his parents he lost it because he was afraid they would be disappointed because that sword cost 500 gold coins. He'd opened up his window before he went to bed so that right when the sun came up it would shine in his face and wake him up. He goes back to bed so he can fall asleep, then he wakes up and goes downstairs but nobody is awake yet so he goes to the present boxes and looks for one that could be a new sword but none of the boxes are shaped like a sword....He waits about five minutes and then "EVERYONE WAKE UP!" he screams. His mom wakes up and goes to the tree and the others come down about 10 minutes after her...."OK, come on, let's open presents." The boy sounds excited, like VERY excited. He wants to save the best for last so he opens the small one first. It's a sword sharpener....and a scabbard....but no sword. Now this boy cannot be a knight. Well, not until he buys a new sword.

Chandler Harris

Tubing

I love tubing. I love that scared feeling you get deep in your gut as teh waves get bumpier adn bumpier and you get faster and faster. Especially when my crazy ADHD uncle is driving. He steps on the gas and the water starts to look white. Then all of a sudden he takes a sharp turn to the left. I hold on to dear life. My fingers are slippery from all of the sun screen. Then one of my legs slips- the water feels like cement. I turn and look at Hannah. I can't see her face because of all her hair blowing in it. Then we hit a bump. We went life five feet- luckily we made it, but not for long! My uncle slams on the break and we are flying in the air and the rest is a blur.

Noah Kim

Contemplation of a Painting by Pablo Picasso

Is still life still, when there is no life?

If there are no people, then is there life?

If objects are still, then where is the life?

And if all life is still, is death a change?

Daniel Ravenal

Story excerpt to come!

Cameron Tarry

One Day I Will

One day I will finish my Harry Potter Fanfiction and put it online.

One day I will write a novel.

One day I will force my brother to read that novel.

One day I will find a passion that doesn't involve me breaking copyright laws in order for me to express it.

One day I will get a PhD in said passion and be a college professor.

One day I will live in Glasgow in an apartemnt with plants and a cat.

One day I will look out my window.

One day I will stand atop the world and see the beauty that it is.

One day I will learn to be happy with who I am.

Ellington Wall

Annie Weinberg

Summer Night

The light is dim

The night is warm

The setting takes a different form

The day is over we're waiting

for a new day to start

All mistakes may be forgotten

In the dreams you dream

The next day, it starts over

The light will be dim again

Slices of Life from Richmond Young Writers, Session 1

People watching in Carytown, hanging with street musicians and Ward from Chop Suey, posing in front of the historic Byrd Theatre before our reading of works in progress.

Alina Alam

Dream Writing

Two police are in space. They hate each other for not getting the stupid guy selling stolen things from two-year old children. They got sent to space for 24 hours for not catching him and all they have is sausage on a fork. So the police are fighting for it. (Number 1 is the Girl Police and Number 2 is the Boy Police.) Do you know who got the sausage? Guess what? The people that said both are right, because the girl split it with the boy.

P.S. The Boy Police doesn't know about sharing!

Imran Alam

Memoir at the Table

Once my brother and I were at a wedding. We were drinking water at a table with some of my friends when my brother left the table. I can't remember why. I was really bored, so I decided to pull a prank on him. I put some salt in his water and stirred it in so it would dissolve and he couldn't see it. He drank the water and stupidly spit all the water on his clothes. He told on me and I got in trouble, but it was his fault that water got spilled on him because he could have swallowed it.

Billy Farrar

Exquisite Corpse

Once upon a time there was this awesome, spectacular, fectacular, kectacular, peptacular and everything else with "acular" in it guy named Billy. He was awesome. But then again, he was extremely strange. He was strange because he was a llama thief. And llama thieves sometimes have three ears, and that was extremely strange, especially because his name was Billy. He hated his name and said it sucks! And so he changed it to Taco. But everyone called him Burrito. Burrito was one day mistaken for a real burrito and eaten by a hobo on the street. And the hobo got really bad stomach problems. He went to the doctor, but the doctor sent him away. Go to the medicine woman healer who lives on the moon, said the doctor. She has a magic potion that will make you live forever.

Katie Harris

Freewriting Excerpt

I felt a cool fast breeze that made me shiver. I figured it was just the wind, but why didn't it affect the trees? I wanted to get out of there and find Morgan. I turned around and started walking towards a gap in the trees. I heard footsteps a few feet behind me. It didn't sound like human footsteps, though, more like horse hoof beats. I spun around once more only to see a horribly pale young man with a grim smile sitting atop an obedient, milky white horse. My breath was suddenly taken away. I couldn't take my now over-sized eyes off this unexpected sight. This man was glaring into my eyes. I felt hypnotized. I was so scared I couldn't even scream. I attempted backing away only to stumble and trip on a root. As I fell to the ground, I could only catch a glimpse of the man and his horse cantering away, or did they just disappear into thin air? After that, everything went black. I woke up in a hospital bed with a splitting headache. I apparently fell backwards in the graveyard and smashed my head on an oak tree, resulting in a major concussion.

Katie Harville

Dream Writing

I had this extraordinarily strange dream the other night. I woke up in this room and all and all of my friends were sitting in a circle around me, taking notes. For some unknown reason, I felt the need to go to the grocery store but I couldn't change because of all the people in the room, so I just went in my pajamas. I got to the store only to learn that pajamas were not permitted and I forgot my money anyway so I went back home and all the people in the room were dancing and doing all this weird stuff, so I still couldn't change. All of a sudden, there was this big BOOM and all the people left because they needed to go rescue a caterpillar or something, so I changed, grabbed some cash, went to the store and picked up a couple of avocados. I got back, took a nap and woke up to 2 policemen standing over my bed. The first officer goes, "I'm sorry miss, but avocados are illegal now."

"That's ridiculous!" I exclaim.

"I'm sorry, it's the law. I'm going to have to confiscate your avocados," the second man says.

"WHAT?"

"Well, umm...here, you can have these guavas!"

I woke up very disappointed because guavas are in no way alternatives to avocados. So in conclusion, exotic fruits and vegetables make for bizarre dreams.

Willa King

Memoir with Table

My mom was always somewhat strict about chewing gum when we were too young. We couldn't chew gum until we were in Kindergarten or First Grade or somewhere around then. One day, our family was going out to eat when I was two years old. They turned around to take the order, and when they were done, they saw me chewing gum. "Where did you get that!?!" my mom said, shocked. I had gotten it from under the restaurant table, where someone else had stuck it when they were finished chewing it.

Tony Oates

Character Study,

Hi, my name is Allen. I'm 27 years old and I live in Nashville, Tennessee. I am a farmer here on my farm and I live with my wife, Susan. Today I'm wearing a ragfull shirt with overalls and my favorite boots I have. Today for breakfast, I had pancakes with cow's special milk in a glass. Something that makes me different is that I always say, "what the devil." I don't know why, but my mom got my nose pierced when I was three so if somebody touches my ear, it hurts. My favorite sport is tennis which I've been doing for the past 10 years.

Emma Ohlsson

A Page from the Diary of Ella Beth Shay

I got teased by my class AGAIN! Can you believe it? It seems they could find someone else to pick on for once. Just because I met some weird, violent guy in a shoe store does not mean I'm a weird person. Sometimes I think the world is so unfair. On a brighter note, my 9th birthday is only 11 days away! I'm so excited. Oh my gosh! I'm so excited. That's less than 2 weeks away! Anyway! I'll see you tomorrow, Diary.

Ella Beth Shay

Daniel Ravenal

Morgan Stubbs

What is Brandon Doing?

After sitting for a while in that folding chair of his, Brandon got up, adjusted his shirt and left. Minutes later he came back in with his back pack and yo-yoed a yo-yo and then dropped it on the floor. He sat down, picked up his back pack, unzipped the zipper and took out a red and white floppy disk and some black wire-rimmed glasses. He took out his phone and without dialing the number, he said "Hi Mom, it's your son. I'm in jail. Um, yeah, it's OK. 200 dollars. Okay then, I'll stay here," and put it away. He took a wallet out of his pocket, got a credit card and handed it to Valley who said, "thank you." Then he poured himself a cup of water, looked out the window, took the box of pens, turned the lights off and left.

Cassie Womack

Memoir

I remember sitting in the kitchen in my high chair and eating mushy, icky stuff that I wouldn't go near for a million dollars now but I bet I loved it then. I was eating the icky stuff out of a blue bowl with a plastic spoon but I wasn't using the bowl of the spoon. I remember I was using the handle to scoop the icky stuff up to my mouth. I remember this, I think, but it might be remembering remembering it.