Creative
Writing!
Describing a Person
 Fill
in the blanks on the hand-out
provided to create a word bank of
adjectives.
 You
can use these to describe different
characters in the coming classes.
*(Exam Writing Skills p.30/31)
Describing a Celebrity
Brainstorm words under
the following headings:
Do not write the
person’s name!
Expression
Hair
Eyes
Voice
Mystery
Celebrity
Tall?
Small?
Face
Build
Any
unusual
feature
Any other
heading
Describing a Celebrity
 WRITE
the description of your
chosen celebrity.
 Do
not tell anyone the celebrity you
have chosen.
 Do
not say what your chosen
celebrity does for a living.
Over to You!
 Read
your description of a celebrity
aloud to the class and see who can
guess the person.
 The
better your description is, the
easier it will be for others to guess!
Describe a Shopkeeper
Charlie Rabbite, a moody, irritable man who
owned the pet shop, was tall, skinny and bony,
with coarse, wiry hair and beady little brown
eyes. His rough hands and fingernails were
veined and sharp like the claws of the birds he
sold. He wore steel-rimmed glasses that gave
him a sinister, cruel look.
Charley had a high-pitched, shrieking voice
that frightened small children and annoyed
most customers. When he got angry or
impatient, little flecks of spit would come
shooting from his thin lips as he snarled orders
and frowned his wrinkled forehead.
Describe a Shopkeeper
 Find
a)
b)
c)
d)
e)
f)
examples from the piece where the writer:
Uses a comparison
Uses adjectives to describe his personality
Uses adjectives to describe his build, hair,
eyes, hands, fingernails, glasses, look
Uses interesting details to help the reader
imagine him
Describes how children and customers
reacted to him
Uses adjectives to describe the sound of his
voice
Describe a Shopkeeper: Over
to You!
 Based
on the model above, write your
own description of a shopkeeper.
 Make a six-box chart first using headings
(a) – (e) to plan your paragraphs.
 Write two paragraphs.
 Your shopkeeper can either be similar to
Charley Rabbite or a very different kind of
person.
Sample Exam Question and
Answer
 The
following story shows you how to use your
skill in creating a character in an exam essay
question.
 Sample
Exam Question:
You are a checkout operator in a filling station.
Write an extract from your diary.
Checkout Operator’s Diary
Tell the reader
about your job.
Set the scene:
WHERE?
WHEN?
WHO?
I work part-time on the checkout at my
local filling station; Saturday mornings 8 to
12 and Sunday afternoon 3 to 7. You may
think this is a boring job for moronic people
with no qualifications, but let me tell you
how wrong you are. In this job anything
can happen and you have to deal with
tough situations. There is a block of
apartments opposite this garage and
some very strange people live in them. You
would not believe how badly some people
behave when they come into this shop.
Checkout Operator’s Diary
Name and
describe
the
difficult
person.
Let me tell you about Mrs Agatha
Hatchett, a nasty, sour-tempered,
skinny woman with frizzy grey hair,
beady little green eyes and lips as
thin as barbed wire. She comes in
every day at lunchtime when we’re
busy, just to give out about
something. However, she has not
been in for a while. Let me tell you
why …
Checkout Operator’s Diary
Start the
story.
Write some
dialogue.
Saturday morning, 11.30am.
The shop is really busy. In comes Agatha,
demanding a token for the car wash, without a
Please or Thank you.
Five minutes later she is back. She snarls at me in
her irritating high-pitched sing-song voice:
“There were no suds in that water so my car isn’t
washed.”
I explain that our car wash is low lather so you
don’t see suds, but your car is washed. She spits
when she talks and keeps wagging her bony
fingers and chipped black fingernails as she
shrieks again, “There were no suds in the water so
my car isn’t washed!”
Checkout Operator’s Diary
Develop
the plot.
A queue is building up behind her. Even
the sweet, smiling old man who comes in
every Saturday to buy a box of Dairy Milk
for his wife looks annoyed. I give her
another token so she can wash her car
again but I tell her not to expect to see
suds.
Out she goes. Two minutes later, at the
door of the shop behind the long queue, I
hear her.
“I’m soaked!” she roars.
Checkout Operator’s Diary
Introduce other
characters.
Describe their
reactions.
She is standing there, dripping
water from everywhere, her clothes
and hair drenched. Other
customers in the queue look
astonished. A little girl giggles.
Agatha drips, splish-splash, up the
shop. She says she got out of her
car in the wash to pull in the side
mirror and she was washed by the
rollers.
Checkout Operator’s Diary
Lead up
to a
climax
I decide it is time for help so I got
inside and speak to Roman, my
manager, a tall, burly man with a
serious expression and a calm
voice. He walks out to the shop and
immediately almost falls back into
the office, so she won’t see his
shocked reaction to the sight of a
woman who looks like she has
thrown herself fully dresses into a
swimming pool.
Checkout Operator’s Diary
Bring the
story to an
end.
The cold and the wet must have
shocked her because she left
without another word and has not
been seen in the shop since. Can
you imagine anything as scary as
being flattened against your car
door as huge, wet, noisy rollers swish
and swirl behind you?
Top Tips!
Read back through the essay and note:
 The focus on descriptive details
 The different ways the character Agatha
is described
 The simple storyline of the essay. It is not
overloaded with action, rather the focus is
on telling the straightforward story well.
 The way the storyline builds to a definite
conclusion.
Over to You: Describe a
Difficult Customer
You are EITHER:
 A traffic warden OR
 A doorman at a nightclub OR
 A garda
Write an extract from your diary. Include a
description of a difficult person you deal
with.
Over to You: Describe a Difficult
Customer
Follow the paragraph instructions in
the sample story you already read.
These instructions are in the boxes
that follow.
Paragraph One
Tell the reader
about your job.
Set the scene:
WHERE?
WHEN?
WHO?
Paragraph Two
Name and
describe the
difficult person
Paragraph Three
Start the story.
Include some
dialogue in the
story.
Paragraph Four
Develop the plot
Paragraph Five
Introduce other characters.
Describe their reactions.
Paragraph Six
Lead up to a climax
Paragraph Seven
Bring the story to an end
Alone in a Dark City Street
Model Story:
Rewrite the following paragraphs
in full filling in the missing words

Writing full paragraphs may be
tiring but it is better
examination practice that just
writing missing words!
Paragraph 1: The Dark Street
vanished clouds
terror
swung
shoulder
whites
deserted
faster
ghostly
one
lights
The street was ………… and the night felt eerie and silent.
The darkness surrounded him as the street ……… went out
one by ……….. and heavy ……….. covered the moon.
When he looked over his ………. , he thought he could
barely see the ……… of eyes and a ………..face and
stocky body about ten feet behind him. When he ………..
around to confront it, the whole thing ……….. He walked a
little …………., and glanced again over his shoulder, trying
not to show the ………. he felt.
Paragraph 2: A whistling starts …
whispered
glimmer
daring
trickled
hear
churned
weak
sinister
Then the whistling started, very ……….. and highpitched, but coming closer. Sweat …………
down his back, his stomach ………., and his knees
felt …………, but still he hurried on, not ………… to
look behind him now. “Stay calm,” he ………... to
himself. There was no …………. of light ahead,
and he knew he was far from help. No one
would …………… if he screamed.
Paragraph 3: Panic!
bashed
desperately
closing
hammering
cracks
definitely
soft
footsteps
surrounded
trickling
Suddenly, he heard ……… It was a ………, gentle sound, so
it did not seem so frightening. But wait, listen a moment.
Yes, it had a rhythm. It was …….. footsteps. Were they in
front or behind? The sound was so strange, it was hard to
tell. They seemed to be ………. in on him from different
sides, getting faster and louder as they ………. him. His
heart was ………. Sweat was now ……….. from his
forehead. In panic, he began to run, blindly. He …… into
bins and lampposts, tripping over ……….. in the path,
………….looking for some light or help or anywhere he
could feel safe.
Over to You: Alone in a
Dark City Street
Write your own three
paragraphs entitled “Alone in
a Dark City Street”
BRAINSTORM words and
phrases to describe a dark,
lonely street. Use phrases from
the model story to help you.
Alone in a Dark City Street
Police patrol
cars
Rattling
bin lids
Cans rolling along
kerb
Rats scurrying from
drains
Broken street
lamps
Food
cartons in
gutter
Dark City
Street
Hammering
heart
Burglar alarms
sounding
Shadows in
doorway
Ambulance
sirens
Whistling
noise
Cats in
the alley
Papers
blowing in
the wind
Sound of glass
shattering
Alone in a Dark City Street
 Paragraph
One: Set the scene.
Describe the time and place, and
present a character on the street.
 Paragraph Two: Start the story and
build the tension. Maybe there are
strange noises. Your character starts to
feel afraid…
 Paragraph Three: Lead up to a climax.
Describe your character’s panic and
terror.
Write a Short Story
A short story must include:




Exposition: background information on characters and/or
setting. May include information about events that
happened before the story began.
Conflict: A problem or obstacle that has to be dealt with.
This essentially means that something must actually happen
in the story – it cannot be purely descriptive.
Climax: The point where all the strands of the story come
together and the conflict of the story is resolved. There is a
turning point of some kind, for better or worse.
Resolution: The conclusion of the short story, where the
events are brought to a close. Your story can have any end
you like – happy, sad, mysterious etc. – but it must be a clear
and obvious end to the story.
Skills needed to write a story
A
storyteller has to create characters that
you can imagine and believe. He or she
must also describe the place where the
story takes place and make up a plot that
keeps you interested from page one till
the end of the story.
Skills needed to write a story
Imagine a place
and describe it
clearly so it can
be seen!
Create characters
How they look
Compose a title
Feel
Names
express what they are
thinking
Imagine a time
Weather, season,
time of day
Make paragraphs
Write dialogue
(conversation)
Plan stages of the
story
Plan a story in sections
1.
Introduction: Where? When? Who?
 Describe
the place where your story begins
 Give
the year/month/season/time of day
 Who
are your main characters? Give them names
Hint: use names of people/places from books or
films if you’re stuck!
Start the story
 What
is this place like?
 What
happens there?
 What
is life like for people?
Hint: describe the season or weather to create an
atmosphere. Suggest a mystery or secret.
Develop the plot
 Is
there some drama or a problem to
face?
 Add
more to the story, keep the reader
interested as characters change.
Hint: give your characters a problem to
face.
Build up tension: lead to a
climax.
 Work
on the storyline. Move characters
into new situations.
 Something
happens.
unexpected or dramatic
Hint: make the readers feel emotion.
Bring the story to an end
 Round
off so that your reader has a sense of a
proper ending
 You
could refer back to little details in the story
 You
could tell the reader how life turned out for
each of the characters
Hint: the last paragraph can sound like a voice over
that hear at the end of a film!
Ideas for rounding story off
 Do
the characters go on a journey or
come home?
 Are
they reunited with their families?
 Have
they grown up or grown older?
 Have
they learned anything?
Writing a Story from a Photograph
Many exam questions will ask you to write
a story inspired by a photograph or
picture.
We will practice how to brainstorm ideas
around a photograph and create a story
out of it!
Writing a Story from a
Photograph
 The
trick when brainstorming is to
ask yourself as many questions as
you can think of about the
photograph.
 Then
you come up with the
answers!
Girl on a Journey
Name:
Date of Birth:
What time, day,
month is it?
Is she a student/has she got a job?
What school or college does she
attend/what does she do?
Place of birth:
Nationality:
Fill in her airport form:
Home Address:
…………………………
…………………………
Address in country of
destination:……………
…………………………..
She has a letter in
her bag. Who is it
from? What does it
say?
She is very talented
in a sport OR in
music. Give details.
What is the reason
for her journey?
What language
does she speak?
What is her
favourite film?
She has an older
brother and a
younger sister.
Name them.
Name the
book she
has in her
bag
What has she
packed in her
case?
There is a secret or
mystery in her past.
What is it?
Young Offender
Name:
Date of Birth:
What language(s)
does he speak?
Place of birth:
Nationality:
Is this his first
sentence?
What is his favourite food? Favourite
music? Favourite film?
Who visits him?
What are his
parents’ names?
Where are they?
Why do you think
the photographer
took the photo
from this angle?
How long has he
been in prison? How
long has he to
serve?
Prison address:
…………………………
…………………………
Home address:
…………………………
…………………………
He has an old
photograph in his
cell. Where was it
taken? Who was
in it?
He writes a letter every
week. To whom does he
write?
Write a Story from a
Photograph
Choose one of the essay plans
that you have completed (either
Girl on a Journey OR Young
Offender) and use it to write a
full essay.
Write a Short Story: A
Soldier’s Christmas Eve
 Always
do a brainstorm or a plan
before you begin writing.
 If you don’t know what story you
are trying to tell it will very quickly
lose structure and you will lose
marks!
 BRAINSTORM: Where? When? Who?
Names of characters?
WHERE does your
story happen?
In Belgium, in the trenches, near a
battlefield.
It will also describe the home places
of the soldiers in the trenches
WHEN does it
happen?
In 1915, during World War I.
It is the 24th of December, the
night before the second
Christmas of the war.
WHO are your
characters?
Soldiers fighting on the British side in World
War I.
One of them is a young Irish teenager who
lied about his age to join up. He is the central
character in the story.
Others are English and Welsh soldiers. There
are also some characters back home.
WHAT are their
names?
•
Christy Murphy (Irish)
•
Alfie Gordon (Welsh)
•
George Foster
(English)
WHAT is
happening as
the story starts?
The soldiers are lying in the darkness and cold,
thinking of Christmas back home. They hear
singing. Across No Man’s Land, the German
soldiers are singing Silent Night.
Write the Story in 8 Paragraphs
It is December 24th 1915. Sixteen-yearold Private Christy Murphy, who
comes from Kilmallock, a tiny village
in Ireland, is far from home, in
Belgium. It is the depths of winter and
he is cold and miserable, lying in a
trench with his soldier comrades.
Paragraph 1: Introduction – Where? When? Who?
WRITE the model introduction in full, completing it with the
words below:
enemy
Belgian
injured
heavy
turf
No
shivering
candles
homesick
far
It is Christmas Eve, 1915. Private Christy Murphy is ………..
from home. He is cold and …………, thinking of the
…………. and the ……….. fire in Kilmallock. While his family
are getting ready for midnight mass, he is ……….. in a
……………. field. The ……….. firing that had been going on
all day stopped about an hour ago. The medics have
gone out into ………… Man’s Land to ring back the dead
and ………….. In the distance he can hear ………….
soldiers singing Stille Nacht.
Paragraph 2: Where? When? Who? – Tell the readers more
WRITE two more sentences to complete paragraph 2 of Christy’s
story:
huddle
icy
rough
snowflakes
swollen
starry
aching
wind
heavy
crunches
khaki
Christy’s ……… uniform is too big for him. Snow and rain have
made it damp and …………, and it is chilling his ………….
bones. His socks and boots feel ………… and sore on his
…………., freezing feet. When he looks up, he sees the …………
night, the full moon and the ………… falling softly against the
black sky. It is bitingly cold and the soldiers ……… down in the
trench to avoid the freezing ……………. When the men pass
through the trench, the snow ………. under their boots. There
are deep holes where they fall knee deep into the …………
slush. ……………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………….........
Paragraph 3: Start the story
WRITE these opening sentences and then complete
paragraph 3:
At sixteen, Christy is the youngest soldier in this
battalion. When he came to join up, he told the
recruiting officer he was eighteen. Although he
read it 5 minutes ago, he puts his hand in his top
pocket and takes out the letter again ….
SOME IDEAS FOR PARAGRAPH 3





There is a letter in his top pocket that he keeps taking out
and reading over and over. Who is it from and what does
it say?
He is hoping for some news in January. What is it?
He carries two other things that are important to him in his
backpack. What are they?
How many brothers and sisters does he have? Is there
anyone he misses most?
He is remembering Christmas at home. He used to love
Christmas Eve, when his mother would put the Christmas
cake on the kitchen table and leave a glass of whiskey for
his little brother to think Santa had drunk it.
Paragraph 4: Develop the plot
There are other soldiers in the trenches. Who are they? What
else is happening?
WRITE three or four more sentences to complete paragraph 4:
Before he came to Belgium, Christy had never spent a
night away from home and had never met anyone who
was not Irish. Now he knew Alfie Gordon from Swansea,
who was eighteen and had worked down the mines
before he joined up. George Foster, a mechanic from
Manchester, was the same age as Christy’s father and had
a sixteen-year-old son of his own.
…………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………........
SOME IDEAS FOR PARAGRAPH 4
Who else is in the trenches near him? What are
their names? How old are they? Where are they
from? What did they do before they joined up?
 In this paragraph you could write a short
conversation between Christy and another
soldier from England, each talking about
Christmas in their home place.
 He carries two other things that are important to
him in his backpack. What are they?
 In the distance they can still hear the sounds of
the German soldiers singing Still Nacht. Describe
the sound coming nearer.

Paragraph 5: Build up the tension
WRITE these opening sentences and then complete
paragraph 5:
The soldiers began to sing …………… The Welsh soldiers had
trained voices and it sounded like being in church. Their
singing reminded Christy of home …
…………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………........
SOME IDEAS FOR PARAGRAPH 5
After a while, the soldiers in the trenches begin
to sing also. What do they sing?
 Describe how the soldiers (who have been
listening to shelling and gunfire all day) feel
when they hear the enemy soldiers singing
Christmas carols.
 What effect does it have on Christy when he
hears Silent Night sung by the German soldiers
and then the Welsh soldiers?
 What is he thinking of and remembering now?

Paragraph 6 and 7: Lead to a climax
WRITE this opening sentence and then complete paragraphs
6 and 7:
Christy had never felt so homesick in his
life …
SOME IDEAS FOR PARAGRAPHS 6 AND 7
Bring the story to a climax. The singing comes nearer.
Soldiers raise their heads above the trench to look in the
distance. What happens then? There could be a very
emotional moment. Something dramatic could happen
here.
Brainstorm as many ideas as you can. You can then choose
one idea that will work best in your story.
 Does a sniper’s bullet kill Christy?
 Does he go into No Man’s Land and bring back a body?
 Does he save someone else and win a Victoria Cross for
bravery?
 Does he meet the German soldiers and drink whiskey with
other young men who are homesick for cities like Berlin
and Hamburg or for little villages in Germany?
SOME IDEAS FOR PARAGRAPHS 6 AND 7
Christy’s family will soon receive a letter.
 It
will either be from him or from someone
writing about him.
 What will it say?
Paragraph 8: Bring the story to an end
WRITE this opening sentence and then complete
paragraph 8:
It is 10am on Christmas morning, 1915 …
SOME IDEAS FOR PARAGRAPH 8
Read back over what you have written so
far. Your last paragraph rounds off the
story.
How
have things changed for the soldiers
in your story?
Which characters are you going to name
again in the last paragraph?
Can you use some words or phrases from
the first paragraph in your ending?
Congratulations!
You have successfully
completed the following pieces
of work:
•Describing a celebrity
•Describing a shopkeeper
•Describing a difficult customer
•Alone in a Dark City Street
•A story from a photograph
•A short story: A Soldier’s Christmas Eve
You are now an accomplished writer!