Here are some creative writing ideas for you to try out...

1. A Story Recipe (version 1: outline) (view printable file)
2. A Story Recipe (version 2: outline + example) (view printable file)
3. Use An Object To Inspire A Story (view printable file)
4. Ideas For Writing Poetry (view printable file)
5. Holiday Escapades (view printable file: ideas 5-7)
6. The World In The Hole
7. The Story Of Fudge
8. More Visual Ideas

1. A Story Recipe (version 1: outline)

This recipe will make one simple short story and is useful when you have to write a story at short notice and within a time limit.

i) In your opening paragraph describe the weather, the place and your main character.

ii) Now, start the next paragraph with speech. Your character wants to do something – what is it? Introduce your other character and describe their looks and personality.
TIP: Don’t tell your reader everything; show them some of it.
E.g. Instead of writing…"he had brown hair"… write… "he pushed his brown hair away from his eyes." This helps the reader to imagine your character.

iii) Open this paragraph with another detail of description about the place or a change in the weather. Something is going to go wrong and your character has a problem – describe it.

iv) Start this paragraph with an adverb – Suddenly, Cautiously, Hurriedly, Slowly etc. Shut your eyes and imagine what you might hear, see smell etc. Make it tense!

v) Solve the problem, refer back to the weather and/or a detail of the description and the place from the beginning of your story. Describe an aspect of your main character that has now changed.

2. A Story Recipe (version 2: outline + example)

This recipe will make one simple short story and is useful when you have to write a story at short notice and within a time limit – you have to do this at school sometimes.

i) In your opening paragraph describe the weather, the place and your main character:

It had been a long hot day but now a dark cloud covered the sun and Bill shivered. Behind him the empty beach stretched back to a distant sea. A few feet away, the top of her head just showing above the hole they had dug together, Bill’s sister Gina chattered to herself as she continued to dig. Everyone else had packed up and gone home. They were alone…

ii) Now, start the next paragraph with speech. Your character wants to do something – what is it? Introduce your other character and describe them. Include a simile in your description:

“Mum! Where are you?” Bill’s shout disappeared on the wind. The beach was stark and gloomy and the clouds were like purple bruises on the grey sky. Gina climbed hurriedly out of the hole.
“Where is everyone? Where’s Mum gone?”
Her eyes were wide as she glanced anxiously up and down the beach. Gina’s hair was the colour of straw and the salt air and sand had stiffened it so that it stood in spikes around her thin face…

iii) Open this paragraph with another detail of description about the place or a change in the weather. Something is going wrong and your character has a problem – describe it:

It began to rain. Huge raindrops splashed against Bill’s skin and left dark craters in the soft sand.
“Mum must have gone back to the hotel, come on let’s go.” Bill turned away and started to walk towards the sand dunes. The wind flung stinging sand at his shins and he lowered his face against the rain.
“Wait! Billy don’t go!” Gina shouted, “I’m coming with you.” She started to run and screamed as a loud crash of thunder boomed overhead…

iv) Start this paragraph with an adverb – e.g. Suddenly, Cautiously, Hurriedly, Slowly etc. Shut your eyes and imagine what your characters might hear, see, smell, etc. Make it exciting:

Reluctantly, Bill turned to wait for his sister. As he reached for her hand an explosion of forked lightning ripped through the blackening sky. He grabbed Gina by the wrist and they ran…

v) Solve the problem, refer back to the weather and/or a detail of the place as described in your opening paragraph:

Just half an hour before it had been sunny and calm and several happy families had been playing on the sand. Now a storm was raging around them and everyone else had gone. Bill glanced up at the steep sand dune that stood between them and the hotel and he started to climb, pulling Gina with him.

It’s up to you to decide how this story ends…or maybe it’s the opening chapter of something bigger.

Have a go at telling the wooden rabbit's story, either to someone else or to yourself inside your head - just before going to sleep is a good time to do this. Use the ideas above or just daydream and come up with your own.

Thanks to Year 3 pupils at Yerbury Primary School for the ideas shown above.

MORE VISUAL STORY IDEAS >>

4. Ideas For Writing Poetry

Have a go at writing a list poem. They are good fun and very satisfying. Don’t worry about making rhymes but do think about the words you choose – they need to sound pleasant to you and to put pictures in your mind.

First of all, make a list of five things that would cheer you up if you were having a bad day.

Here’s mine:

Five Things To Cheer Me Up:
Pale yellow butter melting on toast.
A brown dog dozing by my feet.
Birds singing in the trees about my head.
A good book in my lap.
Peace and quiet in the sunshine.

Now think about someone else and think of five things that would cheer them up. How about a rabbit, (a row of carrots in an empty garden…) or the Queen, (a caravan holiday by the sea perhaps) or anyone or anything that pops into your head.

You can even write this kind of poem about inanimate objects.
For example:

Five Things To Cheer Up A Chair:
Being placed on a beautiful silk carpet.
A ten-minute leg polish with bees wax.
A sign that reads ‘No person over 50kg to sit on this chair’.
Getting re-upholstered in a fabric of its choice.
Being placed near a window with a view of the sea.

...Have fun!

Tom and Keira were bored. It was the last day of the holidays and it was pouring with rain. Just before Mum went to work the phone rang. Mum answered it.

"Oh dear," she said. "Well, I hope you feel better soon."
Mum looked at the children and then at her watch.
"The babysitter can't come and I'm going to have to go or I'll be late for work. Don't get into any mischief. I'll ask Mrs. Popper to call in on you at lunchtime."

Mum had been gone less than five minutes when the trouble started...

The strangest thing happened  to me the other day. I was lying on the floor reading a book when I noticed a tiny hole in the skirting board. I crawled closer for a better look and as I peered into the hole I saw two sharp little eyes staring back at me. It was dark inside the hole so I put my face even closer.

Suddenly the hole started to get bigger - or I started to get smaller - because the next thing I knew I was the same size as the hole and then it was bigger than me and then before I knew it I was standing eye to eye with a twitchy, whiskery mouse.

"And about time too!" said the mouse. "I've been calling you for hours. Now hurry up and follow me!" ...

"No, you can't have a puppy and that's that!" said Dave's mum.
He knew it was useless to plead; his mum would just get cross. But what was he going to do now? Upstairs in his bedroom, hidden beneath his bed was a soft fat puppy called Fudge. And Dave had no intention of parting with Fudge. Not ever. Somehow he was going to have to convince mum that Fudge was a good idea. But first he needed to get some of his dinner off his plate and into his pockets because Fudge would be hungry...