writing to imagine, explore and entertain

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Writing to imagine, explore and entertain

Getting started with creative writing

This document helps you to explore the exciting possibilities of creative

writing. An empty page can seem daunting so you'll need to think about

setting, characters and genre before you make a plan and begin writing.

Writing from your imagination

Your English GCSE coursework folder should include a piece of creative writing that

requires you to imagine, explore and entertain.

This piece might take the form of:

• a short story

• a letter or diary entry from the point of view of a character in a book

• a piece of autobiographical writing

• a travelogue

You might be quite daunted by writing a piece from your imagination but

coursework, unlike an exam, gives you the time and space to feed your imagination

and explore ideas before you shape them into something that will entertain your

reader. Once you have developed some ideas and have chosen your genre, you can

start to put flesh on the bones of your characters, imagine a setting in more detail

and finalise a writing plan before you start the task of actually writing.

autobiographical: An autobiography is text recounting the author’s own life

travelogue: Writing (also called travel literature) that describes the people,

events, sights and feelings of an author who is exploring a foreign place or taking a

journey for pleasure

genre: A category or type of something. Fiction and non-fiction are examples of

two genres.


Planning your creative writing.

With an initial structure in mind, you can start to develop more detail in

your story. Your plan is essential to give your story direction.

Why make a plan first?

A brief, but clear plan acts as a kind of map to guide your writing and stop you

getting lost half-way through your piece. Without a plan you might fall into the trap

of accidentally starting a novel!

You will be marked on your ability to tell your story clearly. To begin with you

should think about the sequence of events.

• What happens first?

• What does the reader need to know in the middle?

• What will happen at the end?

This basic structure will help you to shape your ideas and begin to make a plan.


Ingredients of a story

Below are five ingredients that are common to most stories:

1. Setting and time

In what kind of environment will the events take place? You need to use

words to paint a picture of this place and make the story come alive for

your reader. The reader is entering a world that you are creating for them.

Will your story be set in the present, past or the future? While this affects the

tense that you write in, it could also help to create atmosphere and drama

and add to your setting. If your story is set in the distant past you might

have to do lots of research to make the details (like your characters'

clothing) convincing.

2. Characters

What kind of a person or group of people will be the main focus of your story?

What makes your characters interesting? Get to know them by thinking about

their strengths and weaknesses. What makes them sad, happy, angry or

scared? Think about how they dress and why. Do they have any strange

habits? Will your story require your character to have a friend or sidekick to

help them in their adventure, or an enemy or villain to thwart them? Perhaps

you want your main character to fall in love!

3. Problems

A problem that the main character or hero must overcome gives drive to your

story. This could also be a central question that is answered as the story

unfolds. Think about the possibilities of what might happen to your characters

in this setting that means they have to confront a problem or change

something. For example, if your character faces a difficult or dangerous

situation the reader will be curious about what happens to him or her in the

end.

Beware - the worst stories are the ones where the reader can guess the

ending before having read very far! To keep your reader curious, the main

character must go about solving this problem in an unexpected way. You

might want to add a twist to your story which will make your reader think

about the characters or setting in a different light.


4. Climax

The point in your story at which the problem can no longer be avoided is

called the climax. Through danger, tension, excitement, or all three, your

reader should be on the edge of their seat, unable to put down your story

until they reach the climax. If you were on a roller coaster ride, the highest

part of it would be the climax. Your story might be similar to riding the big

dipper!

5. Ending

The reader needs to feel a sense of satisfaction and resolution when they

reach the end of your story (this is when they get off the roller coaster). Does

your main character finally reach safety? Does he or she slay the villain and

go home to a hero’s welcome? Do the lovers eventually fall in love with each

other or someone else? Or do you want to keep your reader guessing with a

cliffhanger, leaving the main characters in a tough situation or with a

sudden shock?

Think about books you have read and films you have seen. Most stories contain

these elements.


Example

Try writing a plan for a horror story choosing options from each of the main story

ingredients below and putting them together.

Setting and time - choose one

• Midnight. A graveyard in weak moonlight. Mist swirls around the gravestones.

Echoing footsteps can be heard inside the grey church.

• Dawn. The schoolyard. Litter is blown by the wind. A figure lies in a pool of

blood. A dog whimpers.

• Dusk. A dark castle on a cliff. Bats circle the building as a horse and carriage

approaches on a winding track.

Character - choose one or more

• Character 1: a 16-year-old schoolboy always in trouble with teachers, but

misunderstood.

• Character 2: a schoolgirl who has been sent away from home during the

summer holidays.

• Character 3: an old friend from primary school, a bit of a geek or someone

who isn’t very popular, but who believes in your main character when no one

else does.

• Character 4: someone who is in love with the main character, but is only

considered a friend by the main character.

Problem - choose one or more

• The main character is troubled and does not know who to trust.

• The main character suspects that he/she is being stalked.

• The main character makes a discovery revealing the true identity of the

murderer.

• The main character is unaware that the murderer is fast approaching.

Climax - choose one

• The main character becomes trapped and is unable to escape as danger

approaches.

• The main character discovers that their life is in jeopardy because the person

they trusted most is in fact a villain.


Resolution - choose one

• The main character and the villain continue to struggle. The main character

finally finds the villain’s fatal weakness. The villain is destroyed

• The villain slips away quietly into the night. The main character thinks that

they are safe. Echoing footsteps indicate that this probably isn’t so, after all...

• The main character is saved by one of the other characters. The villain gets

his/her payback.


Genres

There are different kinds (or genres) of stories, such as:

• romance - your main characters fall in love

• fantasy - your story features magic or the supernatural

• science fiction - your story is set in the future and features new science and

technology

• spy thriller - your main characters are spies

• horror - your story scares or unsettles your reader

Choose a genre and try writing your own story plan. Remember that all genres

have:

• a setting (and time)

• characters

• a problem for the main character to overcome

• a climax

• a resolution

But the setting for a horror story might be very different to the setting of a

romance. The main characters in a romance would face very different problems to

the main characters in a spy thriller.


Example

If you set the scene for your readers they will have confidence in your

story and characters. This Revision Bite includes exercises to help you

focus on setting.

Giving your story a sense of place

Your readers will be encouraged to become absorbed in writing that includes

colourful details of when and where your story takes place. They will be able to

imagine the place that you are describing and feel as if they are there themselves.

To help you create this world for your readers, imaginative exercises can be helpful.

The following exercises in this Revision Bite focus on:

• sounds and atmosphere

• senses

• inspiration from published writers

Sounds and atmosphere exercise

This exercise shows you how to create atmosphere in your writing. It’s easiest to

do this from where you are right now, but instead you could imagine the sounds of

a fictional place or somewhere you’ve been before.

If you can, take a moment to open the window of the room you are in. Concentrate

on the sounds you can hear. Do they include:

• birdsong?

• traffic?

• construction work?

• music?

• children playing?

Now take time to consider if there's a particular atmosphere created by these

sounds that tells you about the place - do you get a feeling of excitement, chaos

or blissful peace? You could use a list of these sounds to help you to describe a

typical day in this place. What new sound would it take to change or disrupt this

typical day?


Senses exercise

The setting of a story will seem more real to the reader if they can imagine the

smells, tastes and textures of a place as well as being able to imagine the sounds.

Choose your place

• Is there a place that is special to you?

• Do you have a memory of a holiday that you particularly enjoyed?

• Or perhaps you can find a photograph of a place that you would like to visit.

(This could be a room or building that you don’t like or find frightening.)

Choose a place and start to focus on it.

And relax...

Now follow the instructions below and pause between each activity.

Close your eyes, and focus on your breath.

Slow your breathing down – not so much that you are uncomfortable but just slow

enough that you feel relaxed.

Now try to imagine yourself in your chosen place.

Take a moment to look around this place in your mind. What can you see? If you

are outside, look at the sky. Are there any clouds? What precise colour is the sky?

If you are on a beach, what colour is the sand? Look at the light on the sea. You

may be in a room or building instead. Look around, filling in each detail of this place

– how high is the ceiling, what colour are the walls?

Take a deep breath. What imaginary smells enter your nostrils? Can you smell

plants or flowers? Can you smell the sea on the wind? Is there a smell of food? Is

there another scent, perhaps a comforting scent in a room, if you are in a room.

Think carefully about how the imaginary aromas around you, and how they make

you feel.

How do you feel, physically? Are you pleasantly warm? Perhaps you can feel the

sun on your skin, or maybe there is a slight chill in the air. Think of the textures

surrounding you. Perhaps you can feel grass tickling your legs. Or soft, powdery

sand between your toes. If you are in a room, concentrate on the texture of the

floor. Is it soft carpet, smooth tiles, creaky floorboards or something different?


Do you feel safe and happy in this place? Concentrate for a moment on how your

surroundings make you feel.

Open your eyes.

Record the details

Now write down details of the place you have just visited in your imagination. Using

the list below, write words and phrases each to jog your memory.

• What could you see?

• What could you smell?

• If you could taste something, what could you taste?

• What physical feelings, like temperature or texture, did you imagine?

• How did the place make you feel?

Once you have made a list for each sense, see if you can describe the place for the

reader.


Inspiration from published writers

Find inspiration from novelists who have created vivid settings for their books.

Choose the extract that you like best:

The Beach

I noticed that there was something strange about the light. The forest had been

both dark and bright by turns, but here everything was lit in an unchanging

twilight, more like dusk than midday. I looked up, following the trunk of one of the

giant trees. The height of the tree alone was breathtaking. Higher up the branches

curved upwards across the clearing like gables until they joined with the branches

on the other side. But their point of joining seemed too dense and thick, and as I

looked harder I began to see that they were coiled around each other, intertwining

to form a cavernous ceiling of wood and leaves, hanging with stalactite vines that

now became magically appropriate.

The Beach, Alex Garland

Burmese Days

They were getting deeper into the jungle now. The light was greyish, with dazzling

patches of sunlight. Whichever way one looked one’s view was shut in by the

multitudinous ranks of trees, and the tangled bushes and creepers that struggled

round their bases like a bramble bush extending mile after mile, that one’s eyes

were oppressed by it. Some of the creepers were huge, like serpents. Flory and

Elizabeth struggled along narrow game-tracks, up slippery banks, thorns tearing at

their clothes. Both of their shirts were drenched with sweat. It was stifling hot with

a scent of crushed leaves. Sometimes for minutes together invisible cicadas would

keep up a shrill metallic pinging like the twanging of a steel guitar, and then, by

stopping, make a silence that startled one.

Burmese Days, George Orwell

Lord of the Flies

The shore was fledged with palm trees. These stood or leaned or reclined against

the light and their green feathers were a hundred feet up in the air. The ground

beneath them was a bank covered with coarse grass, torn everywhere by the

upheavals of fallen trees, scattered with decaying coconuts and palm saplings.

Behind this was the darkness of the forest proper and the open space of the scar.

Lord of the Flies, William Golding


Heart of Darkness

Going up that river was like travelling back to the earliest beginnings of the world,

when vegetation rioted on the earth and the big trees were kings. An empty

stream, a great silence, an impenetrable forest. The air was warm, thick, heavy,

sluggish. There was no joy in the brilliance of sunshine. The long stretches of the

waterway ran on, deserted, into the gloom of overshadowed distances. On silvery

sandbanks hippos and alligators sunned themselves side by side. The broadening

waters flowed through a mob of wooded islands; you lost your way on that river as

you would in a desert, and butted all day long against shoals, trying to find the

channel, till you thought yourself bewitched and cut off for ever from everything

you had known once – somewhere – far away – in another existence perhaps.

Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad

Imagine that one of these extracts provides the setting of your story.

Write a plan for this story. Include characters, problems the characters might

encounter, what might happen to them in this setting and the story's ending.

Write the story and make your descriptions of the place as vivid as you possibly

can. You could even have a go at adopting the style of the writer.

The vocabulary bank below may help but it might be a good idea to use a

thesaurus too.

Vocabulary bank

Forest Words

Shrub, bush, creeper, vine, grass, grove, copse, coppice, thicket, scrub, jungle,

foliage, branch, bough, leaf, frond, petal, shoot, tendril, blossom, bud, bloom,

verdant, mossy

River Words

Spurt, squirt, spout, splash, swash, rush, cascade, stream, course, flux, flow,

current, rivulet, brook, tributary, torrent, rapids, undertow, undercurrent, eddy,

ripple, choppy, trickle, gurgle, sputter, flow, babble, meandering


Terrain Words

Swamp, marsh, bog, mud, land, earth, ground, bank, shore, soil, gravel, clod, clot,

rock, sand

Temperature Words

Heat, baking, tropical, broiling, sun, swelter, scald, stifling, stuffy, suffocating,

oppressive

Green Words

Verdant, emerald, leafy, malachite, aquamarine, chlorophyll, viridescent, olive,

green as grass, camouflage, apple, pea, sea, bottle

Blue Words

Indigo, sapphire, turquoise, azure, cerulean, sky blue, aquamarine, navy, royal blue

Yellow Words

Ochre, saffron, topaz, gold, amber, straw, lemon, sulphur, golden, gilt, gilded,

sallow, tawny, creamy, sandy

Scent Words

Smell, odour, fragrance, perfume, aroma, fetor, stink


Characters and dialogue

Realistic characters could make or break your story. Your readers want to

know what they think and feel. Convincing dialogue will help keep your

audience reading.

Let the reader see and hear your character

Your reader will be motivated to read your writing if your characters are interesting

and believable. If you imagine how characters think and feel and why they might

act a certain way, they will quickly become more real.

Readers like to 'hear' what characters say to each other. Good written dialogue is

the same as taking part in a private conversation, which draws the reader into

the story.

Always think carefully about your characters. How do you think they should sound?

What kind of language will they use? How will this help your reader understand

your main character better? Precise dialogue will convince your readers.

Listening exercise

Listen to the way different people speak. Consider what their conversation tells you

about their:

• age

• gender

• where they come from

• social class

Focus on:

• the variety of words they use

• their use of slang or dialect

• their accent and how each word sounds

Remember that slang and the use of accents or dialect is fine in dialogue, but be

sparing. Make sure your readers can still understand what your character says.


Dialogue exercise

You are required to vary your vocabulary to create effect in your coursework.

Dialogue is a good way to do this.

Imagine two characters in a local shop. They witness the same event.

1. A girl wearing a hoodie is accused of stealing a chocolate bar.

2. She empties her pockets to show the shop owner that he's made a mistake.

3. The shop owner threatens to call the police anyway.

4. The girl decides to run out of the shop.

5. Before she leaves she says she might as well steal something.

6. She runs off with a chocolate bar.

Now practise writing dialogue that will make your reader believe in your characters.

• Rewrite the scene from the point of view of a posh elderly witness.

• Rewrite the scene from the point of view of an underpaid paper boy or girl

who saw everything that happened.

What did you discover?

• You probably use different words to say the same thing.

• Sentence lengths might be different too.

• Your characters probably have different opinions that show us more about

their personality than what actually happened.

• The paper boy or girl is more likely to use slang than the posh elderly person.


Character exercise

You might have been asked to write from the point of view of a character from a

book that you've been studying. You might have to write as though you are that

character.

To help, think about:

• what they think they want right now

• what they want in the long term

• What they are afraid of

• their strengths and weaknesses

Pay special attention to:

• the way they speak

• the times they live in

• their relationships with other characters

Create a character

Choose one of the faces above to create a character.

Before you write consider what you can tell about this person from:

• their facial expression

• their clothes and personal style

• any other clues in the picture

Think about:

• What kind of background have they come from?

• How are they likely to speak?

• What kind of a person might they be?

• Where have they been and where are they going?

• What are they thinking right at that moment?

• What might be their weaknesses and their strengths?

• What might they want to say to the reader and what story do they have to

tell?


Putting it all together

Now you've done lots of hard work based on your plan - with developed

characters and a convincing setting - you're ready to put it all together and

write!

Final checklist

Once you have your idea for your plot, setting and characters, you need to make

sure that your writing 'tools' are sharp and accurate.

Apart from enjoying the entertainment, your teacher will be making sure that:

• Your sentences are varied in length and complexity.

• You use vocabulary in interesting and imaginative ways.

• You organise your story into a clear sequence of paragraphs.

• Your punctuation and spelling are accurate.

• Your handwriting is clear and readable (one of your pieces of coursework

must be handwritten).

Check your first draft. Would your teacher be able to find examples of all of these

above?


Sentence structure

Writing reads better when the sentences in your paragraphs vary in length but if

you want to create a tense atmosphere, you can use lots of short sentences. If

you want to show that lots of things are happening at once, use a long sentence. A

list of words, or descriptions together in a sentence make the narrator seem

excited, desperate or afraid.

The passage below is from Lord of the Flies by William Golding. The main

character, Ralph, is being hunted by another boy, and Ralph is afraid for his life.

Ralph fumbled to hold his spear so that it was point foremost; and now

he saw that the stick was sharpened at both ends.

The savage stopped fifteen yards away and uttered his cry.

Perhaps he can hear my heart over the noises of the fire.

Don't scream. Get ready.

The savage moved forward so that you could only see him from the

waist down. That was the butt of his spear. Now you could see him

from the knee down. Don't scream. A herd of pigs came squealing out

of the greenery behind the savage and rushed away into the forest.

Birds were screaming, mice shrieking, and a little hopping thing came

under the mat and cowered.

Five yards away the savage stopped, standing right by the thicket, and

cried out. Ralph drew his feet up and crouched. The stake was in his

hands, the stake sharpened at both ends, the stake that vibrated so

wildly, that grew long, short, light, heavy, light again.

Lord of the Flies, William Golding

Try the question on the next page.


Question:

Think about how the extracts below create certain effects in William

Golding's writing?

1. "Don't scream. Get ready."

2. "The stake was in his hands, the stake sharpened at both ends, the stake

that vibrated so wildly, that grew long, short, light, heavy, light again."

3. "Birds were screaming, mice shrieking, and a little hopping thing came

under the mat and cowered."

Match the comments to the correct quotation.

A. The writer shows the character's desperation and fear with a rhythmic list

of descriptions within one long sentence.

B. These short sentences create a tense atmosphere. The reader wants to

read on quickly to find out what will happen.

C. The writer uses a longer sentence to show that lots of things are

happening at once, so that the reader can feel the character's sense of panic.

Now that you understand how these techniques work in William Golding's writing,

try them out in your own piece of work. But be careful to get the punctuation right!

Answer

1B

2A

3C


Vocabulary

Using a wide vocabulary isn't just about swallowing a dictionary - it's about

precision, creation of atmosphere and sometimes even sound effects.

• Precision: in your first draft, check if you've described the sea as 'blue'. Is

there another word or a comparison that you could use to create a more

precise effect? A sapphire sea seems more warm and appealing than an inky

sea, which might be darker and more threatening. Think about the effect you

want to achieve.

• Atmosphere: if you've described a spooky setting see how many death

words and comparisons you can squeeze into the description. The

gravestones might look like decaying teeth. The mist might be like a shroud.

• Sound effects: if you're writing about the wind, the trees might be swaying,

the leaves swirling. The use of 's' words together start to sound like the wind

itself.

Paragraphs

It might help to think of paragraphs as similar to camera shots in a film. You need a

new paragraph when there is:

• a change of subject

• a change of time

• a change of place

• a different character speaking

Your paragraphs should flow in a logical order to help the reader understand your

points or follow your story.


Punctuation

Always check your coursework for punctuation mistakes before handing it in.

Turn to the next page for the answers

Punctuation

Mark Match the symbols above to the definitions in the chart

below:

. 1. Shows that a sentence is a question, rather than a statement.

2. Expresses emotion (use sparingly, for effect).

3. Shows that a letter or letters have been missed out when a

word has been shortened - also used with nouns to show that

something belongs to the noun.

4. Appears at the end of the sentence when you want to leave

your reader wondering what will happen next

(ellipsis/ellipses).

5. Commonly used to indicate the end of a sentence.

6. These are really stylish and impressive. They separate two

complete sentences in a different way. Use them if you want to

show a sharp contrast between two short sentences. Use them

to link two closely related sentences. Use them in longer

complicated lists that already contain commas.

7. When you want to insert a brief explanation inside a longer

sentence, you need one at each end to signify the beginning

and end of the interruption. They also work well towards the

end of a sentence before a conclusion, explanation or surprise.

In speech they show the speaker has been interrupted. Don't

overuse them – your writing could sound breathless and

indecisive.

8. When they're placed around words and sentences they signify

that these words or sentences are taken from spoken dialogue.

They can be single or double – it's a matter of style. (You can

call them quotation marks, speech marks or inverted

commas.)

9. It introduces lists, speech and quotations. It can also be used

when you want to explain, expand or summarise.

10. Used within lists. Sometimes used in numbers after a group of

three digits, sometimes used in dates. Often used in

addresses. Used to introduce quotations and to separate

dialogue from the rest of a sentence. Used to separate

complex sentences into clauses and phrases, or when yes or

no form part of the sentence.

?

!

" "

'

;

:

-

...

,


Answers

1. ? - a question mark shows that a sentence is a question, rather than a

statement

2. ! - an exclamation mark expresses emotion

3. ' - an apostrophe shows that a letter or letters have been missed out when

a word has been shortened and are also used with nouns to show possession

4. ... - an ellipsis appears at the end of the sentence when you want to leave

your reader wondering what will happen next

5. . - a full stop is used to indicate the end of a sentence

6. ; - a semi colon can be used to separate two complete sentences if you want

to show a sharp contrast between two short sentences. You can also use

them to link two closely related sentences and in longer complicated lists that

already contain commas.

7. - - use hyphens to insert a brief explanation inside a longer sentence, one at

each end to signify the beginning and end of the interruption. You can also

use them towards the end of a sentence before a conclusion, explanation or

surprise. In speech they show the speaker has been interrupted.

8. " " - when placed around words speech marks signify that the words or

sentences that are taken from spoken dialogue.

9. : - a colon introduces lists, speech and quotations. It can also be used when

you want to explain, expand or summarise.

10. , - commas are used within lists, sometimes used in numbers after a group

of three digits, sometimes used in dates and often used in addresses. Also

used to separate complex sentences into clauses and phrases, or when yes or

no form part of the sentence. Used to introduce quotations and to separate

dialogue from the rest of a sentence.

writing to imagine, explore and entertain

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