When coming up with what to write for a given topic, the best way to achieve your goal of writing a piece within the time limit is to write:

• Something 'easy'
• Stories with simple plots
• Based on your own experiences.

By writing 'easier' plot stories, you can focus on writing these 'easy' stories really well. So you:

• Focus your energy and time on writing a simple story really well (the quality of the writing is what you're judged on) as,
• Opposed to focusing your time and energy on coming up with a wonderful and unique plot and not having the time to write as well.

But of course if you can try and do both that's the best situation. However, the above is a good strategy to implement for your exam.

Here are some ways you will be able to come up with a storyline (plot) to write when you are presented with a topic:

1. Read

One of the best ways to enrich your creativity is to read as much as you can: novels, stories, and anything else that interests you. You may not notice it, but whenever you read you are exposed to new things, you learn new ideas and facts and words, and you expand your vocabulary, skills and horizons.

While this is incredibly valuable, there are also concrete methods that you can apply in your exam.

2. Your own experience

Relating an idea to your experience will help you think about what you can write about it, and how. It will mean that you do not have to make everything up from scratch. It will also help your writing be convincing and believable.

For example, say you are asked to write a story about a brave act. Think of a brave act you have seen, heard about, or done yourself. Maybe your sister did something brave just last week? Maybe you saw a brave act on the news, or read about one in a book?

Once you have an idea, you can think about other things relating to it: who did the act? Where? What was brave about it? What were the problems that stood in its way? What was its result? How did others respond? How did the people involved feel? Once you have worked out answers to these questions, you will already have a lot of information that you can use as a basis for your story.

Of course, even if your story is based on your own real memories or experiences, it doesn't have to be all real: creative writing means you can change things and take the story wherever you want it to go.

3. Word association

Knowing where to take your idea can also be hard sometimes. One way of doing this is through word association, which is a quick way of developing ideas for a story.

Say you are asked to write a story about a balloon.

• Write down the word 'balloon'
• Then write the first word you think of when you think about 'balloon' – for example, 'sky'.
• Now write down the first word that you think of when you think about the second word (in this case, 'sky') – for example, 'bird'. Now you have three words – in this example: balloon, sky, bird.
• Think about a story that could include these ideas: for example, you could write about a girl who flies into the sky with her balloon, but the balloon is accidentally popped by a bird and the girl falls down from the sky. The bird regrets what has happened and helps her find her way home by flying overhead to look for the way.

Again, as you come up with setting and characters think of simple things that you can write on really well i.e. describe well.

Setting

When you decide on the setting for the story, make sure you can imagine it in your mind. Think of your topic, the story you have decided to write. Where would it take place?

• In what kind of country? What kind of city?
• In a city, or in the countryside?
• In a house? A school? A forest? A submarine? A swimming pool? What kind of places will your characters be going to?
• Who and what is around them? Their family and friends? Their teachers and classmates? Animals? Monsters? Hospital staff?
• What kind of objects do they have around them – computers? Books? Stones and trees? Machines from the future? Paintings?

Once you have a picture in your mind, try to refer to these things consistently in your story, so your reader can have this picture in their mind also. Do it consistently: for example, if your main character talks to her best friend in the morning, try to include the friend later on, too; if your main character goes into the forest with the family dog, don't forget the dog later in the story; and so on.

Characters

Focus on 1 to 2 main attributes of the character and describe those well. But make sure, they complement the story. For example, if you've got a scary setting, add description that relates to that – so not smiley faces. Types of attributes are:

• What are they like?
• How old are they (roughly)?
• What do they look like?
• How do they speak?
• What do they like? What are their favourite things to do?
• What do they want? Who do they like?
• What is their relationship to the other main characters in the story?
• What is their main activity in the story, or the reason for them being there?

Try to create characters who you think are:

• Relatable: if you were the one reading about them, you would understand why they behave how they do in the story, and you would identify with them
• Interesting – don't write about something that you think you would find dull yourself
• Varied – don't make everyone in your story the same.
• Keep it simple – don't overthink the characters and spend more than 10 seconds coming up with a character.

Let's check out the following examples:

Topic	Simple Plot	Simple Character & Setting
	A wombat who lives deep in the woods aims to cross the train line to the other side but gets scared often.	Woods.Wombat – no name written in first person.
	Competing in a rowing competition and practicing up to the lead up.	Lake.John and David – rowers and brothers (see image).I came up with the first 2 names that popped up in my head (2 seconds).
	Attending a concert to see "Death Adda" and feeling helpless when getting caught in a mosh pit.	Concert.Jane – concert goer.
	Visiting the city from the country and navigating through major landmarks with a map. Losing the map along the way.	Bustling City – doesn't need to be specific e.g. a name.John, a visiting student from the country.

Key Rules to remember:

• Keep your storyline, setting and characters simple – focus instead on excellent writing and description.
• Refer to other stories, past experience and word association for inspiration.

Now it's time to do your assignment.

1. Download the assignment question here.
2. Print it out or if you want to do it electronically, save it.
3. Complete the questions to it.
4. Then check the solutions on the video below.
5. To get the worded solutions/sample essays, download them here.