Story Structure: Ingredient No. 5

Inventing Characters Read! Journal Word Notebook

Choosing Titles The Fab Four Golden Rules Generating Ideas Stealing Ideas From an Idea to a Plan Planning from a Picture Stories Based on a Passage Stories Based on a Sentence An Example of Good Planning

Describing a Location Longer descriptions Describing a character's appearance Dialogue Distinctive Voices Show, Don't Tell Characterisation: Shown Feelings More Characterisation Techniques Playing with Sentences Playscripts Action Suspense

What is story structure? 1 Exciting opening line 2 Set the scene 3 Talking and describing character 4 Characterisation 5 Suspense 6 Action 7 Cliffhanger Standing Out: How can you stand out from the crowd? Clever Clogs: Non-Linear Clever-clogs: Two perspectives Clever-clogs: Narrative voice Practice 11+ exam titles

Checking your story in an exam Redrafting = improving your story What if I run out of time in an exam? The Grumpy Examiner's Pet Hates

Year 2 into 3 Lemony Snicket After Harry Potter Must-Read Authors Spy Novels Horror Stories Classics Animal Stories Adventure Historical Fiction Myths & Legends Fantasy Family Stories & Comedies

You’ve written a side of A4. You’ve got eight minutes left. This is the perfect opportunity to include suspense.

When you build suspense you are making your reader’s think something horrible is about to happen. Because the reader is scared, it means they begin to care about what will happen next!
Remember our suspense techniques?

Impact sentences (3-4 word sentences)
Using dashes
Scary sounds
Suspicious movements in the shadows
Mentioning how dark and cold it is
Talk about the character sweating
Talk about the character’s heart
Have the character call out, and tell themselves that there is nothing to worry about.

Read the following suspense passage. Where has the writer, a boy in Year Six, used Bald Worm’s suspense techniques to make you feel worried that his character is going to meet a sticky end?

Last updated on August 13, 2007