How to Write a Great Story For a Creative Writing Exercise

 

Metaphors, similes, onomatopoeia, analogy, personification, alliteration, irony and sarcasm, rhetoric, bias, descriptive language, phrases, simple, compound and complex sentences are language features that should be used when writing a story or a descriptive piece. It shows competency in language and structure. 

 

Paragraphs, commas, semi-colons, brackets, dashes, questions- rhetorical questions and exclamation marks used in the correct way add cohesion to sentences, so they flow well. Adding dialogue so that you understand the relationship between characters is fundamental to building character profiles and moving the story along to the next level. 

 

My GCSE students are preparing for their mock exams and my KS3 students are doing their assessments; creative writing, well punctuated sentences and good grammar are topics, I always have to focus on and highlight their importance in writing effectively. My KS3 and KS4 students usually say that grammar and punctuation are not recapped in secondary school and only becomes a focal point during an assessment. The bad writing habits become difficult to break, particularly, at the time when they need to hone in and apply it to their work. 

 

My 11plus students are currently doing their big write- six weeks of writing a story with different themes-abstract nouns-on each page. It is usually a challenge at the beginning; structuring ideas and getting visuals of characters allows them to physically see the character as they write and describe them in detail. Their planning process gets ideas out of their head and onto the page in a well-structured manner. 

 

Writing a story can be a challenge; writing a plan will help get your ideas together and structure your story more effectively whether you begin with a story idea, a character idea or a plot idea. 

 

 

1. Brainstorming- 10 minutes- think about the plot, themes, characters, your six senses; you may draw 

ideas from a book you’ve read, a film you’ve watched, a picture, or a holiday event. 

 

2. Plot- think about the sequence of events that could happen- something normal or something dramatic- 

you fell out of a tree or the ball hit you in the face- what happened next? 

 

3. Who are your characters? What is their role in the story- character traits, features- is your character(s) 

good or bad? 

 

4. Write a story opener that grabs the attention of the reader- write a few starter sentences to see which is 

more effective. Once you begin the story opener, the rest will begin to flow. 

 

5. Re-read the story once you have finished; make sure it is written in a logical order. Make sure your 

characters are realistic and the story makes sense. 

 

6. Read the story aloud to a family or friend; ask them what they think about it. This is an opportunity to 

get positive feedback and make some improvements-if needed- to add the finishing touches.