1. Writing a Stor y
Welcome to the challenge!
Teacher: Natalia Delbono

2. Some guidelines…
 A story describes a series of real or imaginary events
and can be written in the first or third person (But
remember to be consistent with your choice, if you are
writing in the third person, the whole story must be in
third person).
 It should entertain the reader in some way, for example
by being funny, sad or strange
 Use a range of past tenses in your story, for example:
 Past Continous to set the scene
 Past Perfect for flashbacks and previous actions
 Past Simple for actions
 Make a plan (mind map) and use paragraphs

3. Making a mind map…
 Remember the five stages of a story:
 1) The introduction
 2) The background
 3) The problem or situation
 4) How you felt
 5) The resolution
 Write notes in every point, so that when you are writing
you don’t forget anything
 Give just a little interesting information in your
introduction to make the reader want to read on
 Don’t give away the details of the events in the first
paragraph

4. Some other tips…
 Length: it is not limited but of course that you will need
a wide range of vocabulary to cover the five stages in
your story.
 Try to use specific vocabulary to describe events and
people.
 Avoid ‘general’ words like good, bad, etc
 Try to include some direct speech in your story to make
it more dramatic.
 If you use direct speech, use the correct punctuation,
for example:
- ‘I can climb up the ladder and get in that way’, he suggested,
pointing to the open bathroom window.

5. Finally… some
expressions you can
use…
 Useful connectors in stories…
 Start of the story:
 The first thing that happened was…
 One day…
 In the beginning…
 Following parts of the story:
 Then, …
 Later, …/ Later on…
 After some time,… / After a minute or two…
 A ittle while later, …
 After that, …
 The next thing…

6.  Events that happened fast / slowly
 Suddeny, …
 All of a sudden, …
 In an instant, ..
 Immediately, …
 Gradually, …
 Slowly, …
 Events in the future of the story
 Soon, …
 In a few minutes, …
 In the next hours, …
 The end of the story
 Finally, ..
 At last, …*
 Eventually, …*
*= These indicate that the final event happened after dificulty, or after a long time

7. An example to read…
Alex dropped Lisa outside her house at eight. They had spent the
day at the beach and Lisa wanted a quick shower before they
went out again for the evening.
However, as she walked towards the front door, she realized with
horror that she had left her keys inside. Her parents had gone to
visit her aunt and would not be back for days. What was she going
to do? Alex tod her not to worry, ‘I can climb up the ladder and get
in that way`, he suggested, pointing to the open bathroom window.
Unfortunately, just as he was disappearing inside, a policemean
appeared. Given the circumstances, it undestandably took some
time to convince him that Alex was not a burglar, but finally they
did and he left.
Lisa said goodbye to Alex again and was walking towards the door
when suddenly the wind blew it shut. Alex had to tell her there was
a minor problem. He had closed the bathroom window before
coming out. ‘What are we going to do now?’, Lisa said.

8. Some quotes on
writers and writings…
 Have something to say, and say it as
clearly as you can. That is the only
secret.
Matthew Arnold
 There are two kinds of writer: those that
make you think, and those that make you
wonder.
Brian Aldiss