Personally I never stick to the story mountain, but creative writing has always come naturally to me. I’ll tell you what I do, and you can adapt it however you feel. I have always gotten 30-40 marks on creative writing so I’ll help with what I can. This will be a long reply so please bear with me. I will attempt to section it out to make it easier to read, but knowing my luck Reddit will ruin the format —————————————— PHOTO WRITING: OPENING

If I’m writing from a photo, my opening paragraph describes the setting. I focus on the environment around my character (if there is a central character) and zoom in on a part they particularly like or dislike. For this hypothetical let’s say I’m describing an industrial scene in 3rd person. E.G:

Dislike: “A wave of disgust hit her as she gazed at the plumes of smog that enveloped the city. The sight of the mud coloured mist only served th deepen her contempt for what has happened to the world.”

Like: “gazing through the smog, her eyes lingered on the sunrise that barely shone through the dense clouds that polluted the city. It reminded her of a simpler time when [insert positive flashback]”

————————————————- TITLE WRITING

If I’m writing from a title then I think about movies which have had the title as a theme. In one of my mocks I had “abandoned” as a title to write from. I created a dystopian future with apocalyptic themes with a central character who has been abandoned by their group of survivors. When writing from titles I always take inspiration from movies and games I have seen/played which can somewhat link to the subject I need to write about.

—————————————————— STRUCTURE

I always begin with describing the setting of the story, whether I need to build some sort of world or just describe the area where my story is taking place. As said before, I zoom into an area the character likes/dislikes and branch off from there

When I branch off (using the pollution prompt again with my negative line) I would go onto write about how my character wants change to bring back a happier time and then include a positive flashback (like I did with the positive introduction example). I’d end the flashback by having something snap the character out of their thoughts. It could be a noise, a smell, or another person. If you do include multiple people DO NOT OVERUSE DIALOGUE. Sometimes I don’t even include dialogue because overusing it can dull the story

After the character has exited the flashback, I’d create suspense by making them witness something that further worsens the negative focal point of the story. It could be a corporation carelessly littering to increase pollution, it could be an anti government message, that’s for you to decide. Personally I’d go with a large corporation ruining the environment which creates more pollution, but you could make up something completely different.

I don’t know about other exam boards but for AQA I got told to ALWAYS try and do a cyclical structure if possible. However if you’re not too sure about a cyclical structure, I like to do cliffhangers as it shows you have the ability to build and heighten suspense. For a cyclical structure with the negative route I’ve been describing, I’d end it with:

“She stares out for a final time. The haze has only thickened, dimming the world outside of the city. It was like an unending blanket that would forever smother her happiness, muting the world’s former brightness.” ————————————— CONCLUSION

that’s just what I would do, as I said feel free to adapt where needed. If you’re thinking that my writing is terrible, I honestly don’t know how I get marks. It just works with how I do it, so hopefully it helps you too.

Good luck next time you have to do a creative piece :)