Creative writing
You get a title, a picture or a first line, and about half an hour to write a story. Here’s how to plan it, write it well and finish in time.
Creative writing isn’t part of Rush. These games practise related skills: Synonyms, Word Meanings and Spelling.
Chapter 1
What is an 11+ creative writing task?
You’re given a prompt and a set time, usually about 25 to 30 minutes, to write a story. Some tasks ask for a description instead.
Not every exam has one. Buckinghamshire’s test, which is all multiple choice, doesn’t. Kent’s does: 40 minutes, including 10 to plan. Kent County Council says it isn’t marked, but a panel of headteachers may use it if your school asks them to look again at your result. Many independent schools set writing too, and so do some second-stage tests. The 11+ tests explained shows which test sets what.
The prompt. A title, a picture or an opening line. Given a choice, pick the one you can plan fastest.
The time. Planning and checking come out of it too.
The marks. Markers look for four things, shown below.
Choose one.
- Write a story called ‘The Locked Gate’.
- Look at the picture. Write a story or a description that it gives you an idea for.
- Write a story that begins: ‘The last bus had gone, and it was starting to snow.’
What the marker looks for
Mark schemes differ, but most give marks for these four. A precise word beats a long one: “she crept” shows more than “she perambulated”.
- Ideas and content A story that does what the prompt asks and keeps the reader wanting more.
- Structure and paragraphs A clear opening, middle and ending, in paragraphs.
- Words and sentences Words chosen with care, and sentences that vary.
- Spelling, punctuation, grammar Full stops, capitals and everyday words spelt right.
Chapter 2
Write it in 6 steps.
Here’s ‘The Locked Gate’ from the paper above: the plan, then the opening paragraph, one step at a time.
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Step 1
Plan for five minutes.
Jot down five parts, a few words each. Give your main character one thing they want: Sam wants a key of his own. Then the ending can give it to him.
Sam, 10. Wants a key of his own.5 min
- 1OpeningGate locked, hens out, no Gran.
- 2Build-upSam climbs the fence and follows a voice.
- 3ProblemGran has slipped behind the shed and hurt her ankle.
- 4ResolutionSam takes Gran’s key, unlocks the gate and runs for help.
- 5EndingA week later, Gran gives Sam his own key.
Notes, not sentences. The plan only has to make sense to you.
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Step 2
Open with a hook.
Start where the problem starts, not with breakfast. A good first sentence makes the reader ask a question. Why is Gran’s gate locked?
- SlowOn Saturday Sam woke up, had breakfast and cycled to Gran’s allotment.
- HookThe gate to Gran’s allotment was locked.
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Step 3
Show, don’t tell.
Telling names a feeling. Showing gives the reader clues, so they feel it for themselves. Don’t say Sam is worried: show what he notices.
- TellsSam was worried that something had happened to Gran.
- ShowsHer bike leaned against the shed, her flask stood on the water butt, and the shed door swung open and shut in the wind.
Three clues, and the reader works out that something’s wrong.
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Step 4
Mix up your sentences.
Start each sentence in a different way, and change their lengths. A very short sentence after long ones makes the reader stop, just as Sam stops to listen.
Nine sentences, nine different first words. Each bar is one sentence’s length.
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Step 5
Use more than your eyes.
Add what Sam hears and feels, not only what he sees. Two or three senses put the reader right there at the gate.
- Hearthe padlock only clanked against the bars
- Feelthe frosty metal stung his fingers
- Seehens … scratching between the cabbages
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Step 6
Choose one technique, with a job.
One or two are plenty, if each has a reason. A fence can’t look, so giving it a person’s action turns it into Sam’s enemy. That’s personification. The comprehension page names the others.
He looked at the fence, and the fence looked back.
Not a list of tricks: one, where it does something.
The finished opening
111 words. The numbers show which step each part comes from.
Step 2The gate to Gran’s allotment was locked. Sam rattled it twice, but Step 5the padlock only clanked against the bars, and Step 5the frosty metal stung his fingers. Behind the fence, Gran’s three hens were loose, Step 5scratching between the cabbages as if they owned the place. There was no sign of Gran. Step 3Her bike leaned against the shed, her flask stood on the water butt, and the shed door swung open and shut in the wind. He looked at the fence, and Step 6the fence looked back: taller than him, with a strip of wire along the top. Step 4‘Gran?’ he called. Nothing. Then, from somewhere behind the shed, very faintly, someone said his name.
Three mistakes openings make
| The mistake | Do this instead |
|---|---|
| Starting too early. “Sam woke up, brushed his teeth and had his breakfast.” A whole paragraph of this, and nothing has happened. | Start at the gate, where the problem is. |
| Every trick at once. “The colossal, gigantic fence loomed like a monster, as tall as a tower.” So many tricks that none of them works. | One technique with a job, like the fence looking back. |
| Every sentence the same. “Sam went to the gate. Sam rattled the gate. Sam looked for Gran.” | Start sentences in different ways, and put a short one after long ones. |
Then write on from your plan. Paragraph two is the build-up: Sam climbs the fence and follows the voice. The plan says what comes next, so you never stop to wonder.
Remember: Plan it. Show it. Check it.
Chapter 3
Finish the story.
The plan carries you to the end. These are what win or lose marks after the opening.
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Give the problem the most words
The problem is the heart of the story, so spend the most time there.
Finding Gran and working out what to do gets two paragraphs. Trap: five adventures in one story, a tunnel, a dragon and a battle, each with one sentence.
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End by linking back
Solve the problem, then show what has changed.
“The next Saturday, Gran held out a key on a piece of green string. ‘Your own,’ she said.” Trap: “It was all a dream”, or a stranger who fixes everything.
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New moment, new paragraph
Start a new paragraph when the time, the place or the person changes, or someone new speaks.
“Ten minutes later, the ambulance arrived.” Trap: one long block. Paragraphs are part of the structure mark.
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‘Don’t move,’ said Sam. ‘I’ll get help.’
Speech: a little, punctuated right
Speech marks go round the spoken words, with the comma or full stop inside them.
Each new speaker starts a new line. Trap: a long conversation. Two or three lines of speech are plenty in a timed story.
The last three minutes: check it
With five minutes left, start no new events: write your ending. Then read it through slowly, in your head, for these.
- A full stop and a capital letter for every sentence.
- Words left out, or written twice.
- Everyday words spelt right.
- Two sentences joined by only a comma.
Chapter 4: In the exam
When the prompt is different.
The plan and the steps work for every prompt. Here’s what changes.
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A picture
Find the story in it: who was here, what just happened, what happens next?
Whose footprints lead away from the boat, and why are they in a hurry? Trap: listing what you can see. A boat, sand and the sea make a list, not a story.
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‘I knew the letter wasn’t meant for us.’
I, and the past tense: keep both.
An opening line
Keep its person and its tense all the way through.
It says I and knew, so write I and the past tense to the end. Plan first, as for a title: who the letter is for, and what happens when you open it. Trap: slipping into she, or into the present tense (is, goes), halfway through.
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A description
There’s no plot, so give it a path: through time, or from place to place.
A railway station late at night, one paragraph for each stop above, with sounds as well as sights. Trap: a list (“There was a bench. There was a clock.”), or a story when it says describe.
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A letter or a speech
To persuade, plan three reasons, one paragraph each.
Asking your head teacher for a school garden? Answer the other side’s best point, then say again what you want. Trap: Yours faithfully goes only with Dear Sir or Madam.
Chapter 5
Your turn.
Easier prompts first. Plan each one for five minutes before you open its hint.
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Task 1Level 1, Story
Write a story called 'The Day the Power Went Off'.
Show a hint
Problem: no lights, no screens, maybe no heating. Resolution: what does the family find they can do instead? End on one thing that is different afterwards.
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Task 2Level 1, Description
Describe the playground on the first snowy morning of winter.
Show a hint
Move through time: before anyone arrives, the first footprints, then the noise of the whole school. One sharp detail for each sense.
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Task 3Level 2, Story from an opening line
Continue the story that begins: 'Nobody had opened the back door of the shop for years.'
Show a hint
Decide what is behind the door before you write a word. Character: who opens it, and why today? Problem: what they find isn't what they expected.
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Task 4Level 2, Story
Write a story called 'The Swap'.
Show a hint
Two characters swap something: places, bags or jobs. Want: why does one of them want the swap? Problem: it goes wrong in a way that teaches them something.
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Task 5Level 3, Description
Describe a busy market from the moment it opens to the moment it closes.
Show a hint
Three or four moments, one paragraph each. Follow one stallholder through the day, so the description has a thread to hang on.
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Task 6Level 3, Story with a rule
Write a story in which the main character never speaks.
Show a hint
Everything has to be shown: what they do, what they notice, how others react. Give them a strong want, and a reason for their silence that the reader works out.
For parents.
What parents ask us about creative writing.
Questions parents ask
How long should an 11+ story be?
There is no target length. Aim for a story your child can finish in the time, with an opening, a middle and an ending in paragraphs, and practise against a timer until the ending always gets written.
Should my child learn a list of ambitious words?
Only words they can use correctly. Markers notice a precise word in the right place, such as 'the padlock clanked', far more than a long one forced in. Learning a word means using it in a sentence of their own, not memorising a list.
Is it all right to write in the first person?
Yes. First person ('I') and third person ('she') both work. Pick one and stick to it: switching halfway is easy to do in a hurry, and easy for a marker to spot. The same goes for tense: past or present, but not both.
How can I help my child practise at home?
Set a prompt from this page and a timer. Afterwards, read the story together and pick out one sentence that shows instead of tells, and one to improve. Next time, rewrite only that sentence.
Should my child learn a story by heart for the day?
It's better to prepare parts of stories than whole ones. A memorised story bent to fit a title your child hasn't seen usually drifts away from the task, and markers notice. What helps is a few characters, settings and openings your child has practised, which can be fitted to most titles during the five-minute plan.
Practise the related skills in Rush.
- SynonymsChoosing between words that mean nearly the same is the choice a writer makes when walked becomes trudged or crept.
- Word MeaningsA word used precisely impresses a marker more than a long one used loosely, and this game trains knowing exactly what a word means.
- SpellingSpelling counts in the accuracy marks, and this game drills the words children most often get wrong.
Six games are free, plus a new family game every day. All 41 games are £24.99 a year after a free week1, or £3.99 a month.
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