SIX AMAZING SHORT STORIES – For anyone who wants to improve their reading and thinking skills

Here are Six Amazing Short Stories to help you improve your writing, reading and thinking skills. To write well, you have to be a good reader. Read that again. It’s something that’s so often overlooked by many of my creative writing students – it’s hard to juggle the balance of reading and writing for sure. […]

Descriptive/Narrative or Creative Writing: The Pyramids

This is a sample exam answer for the GCSE / IGCSE Descriptive Writing question on the English Language exam. It will be useful for any student studying Descriptive, Narrative or Creative writing. It’s an answer to the following question: “Describe a time and place, real or imaginary when you felt trapped. Concentrate on your surroundings […]

Descriptive Writing: Nightmare World (Writing Process, Example Plan + Written Extract)

Below, you’ll find a Descriptive Writing Piece: Nightmare World, along with the writing process, example plan and written extract. The piece below was given to a student as a writing prompt. With direction and support during the planning phase, he produced an excellent piece of work! His piece would receive a high grade, though it […]

Descriptive Writing Task: How To Describe an Object

In this mini-lesson, I’ll go through the basics of how to describe an object in detail – and not just in a boring way! Many of the creative writing and descriptive writing questions in exams require you to focus on an object, person, place or thing. Thanks for reading! If you find this useful, take […]

Descriptive Writing: What it is and How to do it

Almost all English exams require students to do ‘Descriptive Writing’ at some point, and on most exams that I teach this is the highest marked question on the paper – worth up to 50% of the paper as a whole. But what exactly is it? And can it really be taught? There’s a common belief […]

Narrative Writing: Student Example “On The Run”

This example narrative essay was written by one of my 15-year-old students, with my detailed notes on feedback and marking. This was one of her first attempts at writing (her exam board is AQA GCSE English Language, but most English exams have similar questions and mark schemes to this one ) and I think she […]

How to Understand and Analyse a Poem

This is a process I developed myself when I was at university studying poems; I couldn’t understand nor analyse a poem, and it confused the heck out of me. I used to look at poems and feel completely lost like I didn’t even know where to start. So, I developed this system as a way […]

How to Understand the Basics of Poetry

This page takes you through everything you need to know when starting out with understanding the basics of poetry. It’s great for complete beginners, or experienced writers wanting to refresh their knowledge. It’s equally useful for literature students, such as those taking GCSEs, IGCSEs, and A-Levels. If you’re totally stuck on poetry and how to […]

Descriptive Writing Piece: Hot Air Balloon

This is a descriptive writing piece that I wrote in response to a question for GCSE English Language – the question was ‘Write a description suggested by this photograph’ (photo below). It can be used for any student at any level – GCSE and above – to improve their creative writing skills, particularly on the […]

Creative/Narrative Writing Example — Lake Narcissus

Here’s a creative/narrative writing example – Lake Narcissus (GCSE Narrative Writing Task A* L8/L9 Example). It’s a story about death vs life, thoughts vs impulses, and the restorative beauty of nature. I’ve been teaching a lot of creative writing recently and yesterday my student challenged me to sit and write a story with her: so […]