Original writing tips and suggestions
One of the most hotly discussed staffroom topics roughly translates as ‘Help – Original
Writing nightmare!’ so, courtesy of the staffroom contributors, we’ve put together
some daring, intriguing and inspirational suggestions for getting your students to
create thoughtful and individual pieces of original writing.
Autobiographical writing:
Using The Sunday Times magazine article 'A Life in the Day’, read, analyse the language
etc. then get the class to write their own versions.
Tweak the above by using the Independent on Sunday feature ‘How We Met’. (Scope here
for both real and imagined pieces.) Fictional examples might include Romeo and Juliet,
Daz and Zoe, Piggy and Ralph etc.). ‘One caveat: the original ‘How we Met’ format had
all the biographical info at the start and each individual recount ended with a paragraph
that speculated on the future of the friendship. This seems to have been dropped from
the revamped version, but the Original Writing coursework should still include it.’
Get students to write a letter to themselves to be opened in thirty years time.
Writing based on Room 101. Watch an episode of the show, then get students to pick five
objects that they think should be consigned to Room 101. ‘This can produce some great
description and some interesting inclusions, ranging from sprouts (typical!) to injustice or
a painful memory. Kids can play around with tense, rhetorical devices etc. It provides a
healthy outlet for the more sarcastic and satirical among us! You can turn it around and
do things you would save from Room 101.’
Travel writing
Try using non-fiction extracts from Klondyke Kate as stimuli. ‘We analysed one extract
(Yugoslavia train journey) using point, quotation, explanation… looking particularly at
the effects created by the author. We laid out in planning, ideas about exposition,
climax, resolution etc. We found it more interesting to mess with expectations such as
having a stranger who changed our internal/external journey, having twists, utilizing
simile/metaphor, mixing narratives to have more than one narrator or using flashbacks.’
Descriptive writing
Take a one minute section of a film, and write this up as a piece of description, looking at
sentence openings and prepositions. ‘This works well with the scene in The Matrix in
which Trinity breaks out of the hotel, and/or Black Hawk Down where the soldiers first
descend into Mogadishu.’
Students produce a piece based on the opening sequence of Saving Private Ryan. ‘After
watching the sequence, ask them to write a memoir as a war veteran looking back on the
D-Day landings. (N.B: as the film is cert. 15 it can only be done with Y11s.)’
Keep it small. Describe one small event but draw out every detail by making use of the
senses.
Altered perceptions/seeing the world differently. Students take on a different viewpoint
(ant, fish, toy) and either describe an event in this character’s life or write a piece of
description from this point character’s point of view. For stimuli, take a look at Seamus
Heaney’s ‘Perch’, or watch the beginning of A Bug’s Life, Antz or Toy Story to get an idea
of what the world might look like from another perspective.
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Original writing tips and suggestions
Sensory deprivation
One staffroom contributor mentions an effective piece, written from the point of view of
a blind person. ‘One [piece that really stuck in my mind] described [a boy] waking up to
his music, the sound and how it throbbed through the floor etc. going down stairs, the
smell of frying bacon etc. It got as far as him arriving at school and was all very sensebased. Then you started to realize that the one sense he wasn’t mentioning was sight.
At school he got out of the car, nervous about new school etc.’ The final line gave away
the fact that the boy was blind.
Synesthesia (confusion of the senses – smelling colours, tasting words etc.) can be a good
launch pad for Original Writing coursework. There’s a Horizon documentary on the
subject, or, for a novel based on synesethesia, refer to Clare Morrall’s Astonishing
Splashes of Colour.
Genre bending
Write a dramatic monologue of a ‘hard-done-to’ fairy story character, like 'The Wolf' in
Little Red Riding Hood (could also be an oral assessment piece). ‘I used Jon Scieszka’s
‘The True Story of the Three Little Pigs' by A. Wolf’ as a stimulus, which went down
really well.’ For other ‘altered’ fairy stories see Angela Carter’s Book of Fairy Tales or
The Bloody Chamber. Her stories often take classics and subvert them (providing a
feminist angle). The short story The Company of Wolves (there’s a film of this too), is
Carter’s take on Little Red Riding Hood. You could also have a look at Roald Dahl’s
Revolting Rhymes for some comic or gory versions.
Dystopian fiction. Use the openings of Nineteen Eighty Four or Oryx and Crake to get your
students thinking about their own dystopian worlds. Go for straightforward scene
setting/description, or with a particularly gifted group/individual, offer them the chance
to write the opening chapter of their own dystopian novel.
Urban Myth
Supply a range of suitable urban myths and look at describing scene, character, and how
to set out speech correctly. Students are then give/work out a clear plot which leaves
them free to focus on characterisation and setting.
Text inspired
‘I did ‘Great Expectations’ as pre-1914 prose followed by Duffy's ‘Havisham’, we then did
some Original Writing as Miss Havisham writing a letter to Compeyson – my top set 10s
seemed to really get into it and it gave them plenty of scope for expression.’
Use the poem 'Limbo', extracts from Alex Haley's 'Roots' and the film Amistad as a basis for
describing a slave's capture and journey. (Boys in particular will love all the goriness
involved).
Get a copy of Ray Bradbury's short stories The Pedestrian and Embroidery – the latter is in
an English and Media Centre A Level publication. Read Embroidery first and focus
students on the structure and the language (for example, how Bradbury focuses on the
really tiny details). Then read the The Pedestrian and ask students to add another section
to the story. ‘When I've done this before, I've asked them to stick to no more than two
sides, and it's worked really well.’
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Original writing tips and suggestions
Picture inspired
Use Edward Munch's The Scream as a focus for coursework – students create the story they
think inspired it. ‘It works for all abilities as differentiation is by outcome – you can add
in taught bits where you feel the group need it after a first draft.’ (Make sure that the
students have black and white copies to aid visualisation.)
Techniques and tips
The missing paragraph technique. Provide students with two paragraphs of narrative
without an obvious connection, then get students is to write the intervening narrative that
joins the two paragraphs. (Works particularly well if they using word processors.) ‘If
students aren’t on computers, provide the two paragraphs on separate sheets of paper.
“When done, get them to write a paragraph to precede the first one / follow the last
one. It's a good way of getting over the hurdle of 'the blank sheet of paper/the blank
mind.’
Cracking down on dialogue: ‘I always ban speech – not allowed it, nope. Then if one or
two beg and give reasons, I take time helping them get it right. Again, you otherwise
risk [getting] “hello” “hello” “did you do anything at the weekend?” “no”, “did you?”
“no” “oh”.’
☺ Many thanks to all staffroom contributors who donated their nuggets of advice.
© 2007 www.teachit.co.uk
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