Writing Excerpt: Three of My Favourites

 This is the second last day of Camp NaNoWriMo. I can't believe it's almost over! Where did the month go? Today also marks the last writing excerpt of the month. I've drawn my favourite short excerpts from my character development scenes for this final posting. I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I enjoyed writing them.

*

“You ate a ghost chilli?” Nicola asked, her mouth dropping as she stared at his dimly lit face. “Seriously? What possessed you to try that?”

“It was a dare at school,” Eric said with a shrug. “A whole bunch of us decided to do it together. So we got a whole bunch of the chillies together with milk and ice cream and all that sort of stuff so that when our mouths died from the heat, we could rescue ourselves. Let me tell you, never try that. Honestly, it felt like I bit on the toe of Satan it was that hot in my mouth. My throat felt like it was going to close over. But I survived way better than the others so that was definitely worth it.”

“That is some story,” Nicola said. “I guess you must really love your spicy food.”

“Not any more,” Eric said.

*

Nicola flipped out of the water, sending water droplets sparkling all over the room before they dropped to the ground like fat plops of rain. Sara raised her arms over her head, trying to shield herself from the water flying around. Nicola splashed back into the water, sending a tidal wave of water rocketing across the pool. Normally the aquatic mutant was very graceful and could slide in and out of the water with barely a ripple, and certainly without a wave like that. Obviously she wasn’t in the best of moods, even in the water.

  

*

Finally they stopped dancing and prancing and started walking along at the edge of the water, heading for the rocks at the bend of the beach. Bethany darted back and forth, soon lagging behind the other two, searching for shells. Most shells weren’t worth picking up, and some of them ended up being rocks instead of the pretty sea shells that she was searching for.

“Here’s one.” Lee turned it over with his foot. It was half of a little clam, plain on one side, but shiny with mother of pearl on the inside. Bethany darted over and scooped it up, adding it to the small collection in her hands.

As they drew closer to the rocks, the shells grew more and more numerous. Sara and lee helped Bethany to gather shells. They found more clam shells, twisty shells that spiraled up into points, and little white shells that looked like angels’ wings. By the time Megan and Jonathon caught up with them, all their hands were filled with shells, and they couldn’t possibly carry any more.

“Surely you have enough by now,” Megan said.

Bethany’s face fell. She looked around the rocks. There were so many good shells that she still wanted to pick up, but she physically couldn’t carry any more. She let out a sigh and tried to juggle the shells so that she was less likely to drop any of them.

Jonathon pulled his white bucket hat off his head and held it out to Bethany. “Here, put your shells in there. You can carry them in there for now.”

One by one, Sara, Bethany and Lee tipped their shells into the hat. Bethany gripped the hat by its string, swinging it like she would swing a bag. Something caught her eye and she darted off across the rocks, in search of her next big find.

*

How has your Camp gone? Are you sitting back and relaxing as a winner, or are you still racing toward the finish line? Also, would you be interesting in reading more Writing Excerpt posts in the future?