Continuous Writing 1 - Planning a Story

Continuous Writing – Topic 1

Planning a story

Writing a story might sound like a daunting task for some of you. Perhaps you have tried it and given up. Perhaps you have tried and was given a bad grade by a teacher. Perhaps you have been forced to write many stories in order to practise your writing techniques.

Whatever your reason for writing or not writing, this post is here to help those who want to become better writers and to encourage those who detest writing to keep trying.

Most writers have problems ensuring that their story flows in a logical manner. Some writers are simply stuck midway and have no idea what to write. Some writers just find the thought of writing so many words a frightening task.

One of the best ways to overcome these writing hurdles is to plan your story before you begin. Do not jump into writing a story no matter how pressed for time you are or how eager you are to tell everyone about your story ideas. You must plan as it will help to calm your nerves (if writing a story frightens you) and let you go back and forth with your ideas until you are satisfied with the flow of your story.

We might not all be writers like the likes of JK Rowling but we all have ideas and our own stories to tell. Let's not keep these ideas and stories hidden inside us. Let's become writers too!


In Paper 1 of the PSLE English paper, the continuous writing section carries 40 marks. This is quite substantial and will be very helpful in pulling up your overall grade. 

The marks are divided into:

Content (20 marks)

Language (20 marks)

You must set aside time to plan your story. 

Planning your story will allow you to:

- follow a logical sequence

- check that you keep to plot

- organise your points as you think of them

Here are some important steps when planning your story.

       1. Think about the point of view your story will be written in.

First person point of view

The writer is one of the characters in the story.

The story is written from the writer’s point of view.

Example:

When I woke up that morning, I was puzzled to find the house in complete silence. My mother was not in the kitchen making breakfast and my younger brothers were also not asleep in their beds. We would usually be eating breakfast together. Where was everyone?

Third person point of view

The writer is not part of the story.

The story is written from a bird’s eye view.

Example:

When David woke up that morning, he was puzzled to find the house in complete silence. His mother was not in the kitchen making breakfast and his younger brothers were also not asleep in their beds. They would usually be eating breakfast together. Where was everyone?

Do you notice that the pronouns are different in the two examples above? You must be certain of the point of view that you are using so that you will not get the pronouns wrong when you write your story.

        2. Think about what you want to write and come up with points for each of the following 

            categories.

Beginning	This is the introduction where you introduce your characters and describe the setting. Click HERE for different ways to start a story.
Problem	This is the part where you write about problems that are happening to your characters. This part will tell your readers that something is about to happen to the characters.
Build-up	This part continues the description of the problem.
Climax	This is the main event in the story. For example, if you are writing about a good deed, this is the part where the good deed is done. If you are writing about an accident, this is the part where the accident happens.
Falling Action	This is the immediate consequence of the main event. For example, if you are writing about an accident, you could write what the victims or passers-by tried to do right after the accident.
Resolution/Ending	This is the part where you write about what happens to the characters at the end. You can reflect on the problem that happened in the story and describe any other details to end your story. For example, if you write about an accident that the character in your story witnessed, you could state that the crowd at the accident scene began to disperse and the character thought about the importance of abiding by road safety rules.

When planning your story:

Write points for each of these sections.

Read through the points to make sure you have a logical story.

Write your story only after you have planned it.