Think of The Seven Steps as the building blocks to great writing. Isolating writing skills into individual steps ensures you don’t get ‘bogged down’ with writing the whole piece. You will gain confidence in each building block, and then you will pull it all together to become a creative and engaging writer.

Step Two, Sizzling Start

6 Traits of Narrative Writing

Step Four, Dynamic Dialogue

What is Dialogue?

Dynamic Dialogue

Creative Writing

Step Six, Ban the Boring

Activities

Read the ‘Before’ version of the Fins the Fish and then in groups make suggestions using the Seven Steps to improve the text. See the feedback in the blog post for comparison.

Before

One day there was a fish called Fins. Fins lived in a place called Peaceful Village. Fins was playing peacefully with his school when suddenly some fishermen came. They brought their boats around and around the other side. They were trapped! The fish were getting caught in the nets around Fins. He managed to see a little gap between the boats and he got away.

Edit the text individually using the suggestions before sharing the ‘After’ version and some of the examples written by students.

Feedback

Luke has started his story right in the middle of the action which is great! However, as readers, we don’t feel like we are really there. To Ban the Boring and make the opening more dramatic, Luke could:

1. Add more detail to Tighten Tension – Don’t just say the boats came. Close your eyes and think of what the fish would see, hear, touch, taste, smell and feel (the Five + 1 Senses). There would be engine noises and shouting, nets and danger. Fins would hear his friend’s cries for help. He’d taste their blood in the water. Imagine what it would be like to be there using all of the senses and then weave those details into the writing.
2. Use Dialogue to bring the scene to life – Don’t just write ‘the fish were frightened and the leader called out to follow him’. Put in the actual words they would say. ‘Hurry!’ ‘This way.’ ‘Quickly!’ Hearing the real words has much greater impact.

After

The fishermen came when Fins was playing peacefully with his school. They brought their boats and nets and noise. And danger.

‘Quickly!’ cried the leader. ‘Swim this way.’

But the nets were already there.

‘The other way!’ someone called. ‘Hurry!’ Some of the school were already caught in the nets. The water churned as they struggled. Fin could hear their cries, he tasted their blood in the water.

He swam quickly. There was a gap at the side of the nets. He swam towards it sideways.

‘Quickly now! Hurry!’

And suddenly he was free.

Using the Five + 1 Senses (tension activity) and putting in dialogue, makes this scene much more dramatic. It is easy to do using the Seven Steps techniques.

The good news is that you won’t have to do this long term. If you train students in these editing skills, soon they will be able to edit their own work and the ‘boring bits’ will disappear forever!

Ban the Boring text and video

22nd April 2020

PART B

Click on this video for Part 2. The transcript (text) is below! The scroll down to the activity. Write it in your workbook or on a piece of paper and upload it to Seesaw.

Ending a story can be an excruciating and frustrating experience. We all want that perfect conclusion, one that complements and fulfills the purpose of the story.

We especially want an ending that leaves ourselves and our audience satisfied. Achieving this is not as easy as it sounds; an ending takes on a lot of gravity when you realise there's no coming back once it's done.

Often, a reader's most long-lasting memory of your story will be its ending, so it's important to agonise over it just as much as you did your faultless first paragraph.

Thankfully, there's a limit to the numbers of ways you can tie up your tale.

The way your piece ends should largely be connected to how you've written the rest of the story.

You should know what you were trying to say when you set out to write, and thus have an idea of the impression you want to leave when the story is over.

There is a theory that stories can only have five possible outcomes, but to make things even easier, here are six specific types of endings you can consider to help you finish your masterpiece.

1.Resolved Endings

A resolved ending is great if you want everything neatly packaged and put away.

All the plotlines and character threads are concluded. There's no conjecture and no questions to be asked. The fate of everyone in the story is known and it is clear how the characters might live on into the future. This is good if you are writing a singular novel or concluding a series.

Examples that immediately come to mind are mysteries. Despite the bulk of a mystery novel being clouded in suspense and confusion, everything is illuminated for the reader at the climactic end of the story.

Usually, one or more people unravel the mystery and expose the culprit or cause of distress. A style that commonly employs this ending is the 'whodunnit' story;

2. Unresolved ending

This is basically the opposite to a resolved ending. The overarching plot is left unfinished and the ultimate outcome of the characters' story arcs is unknown based on the textual information.

This might be used to entice readers to use their imagination and create their own ending, satisfying themselves.

More commonly, it's used to set up for a sequel. References are usually made to tasks still to be done or conflicts still to be determined, essentially making the book one big chapter of a larger story.

Obviously, this is one of the easiest endings to write. Readers understand nothing has to be wrapped up here, but it's still vital to create a sense of excitement and anticipation using an unresolved ending, otherwise people may not be interested in coming back for the second installment.

There are plenty of famous examples to pay heed to, such as Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy, Rowling's Harry Potter series, or The Chronicles of Narnia books written by C. S. Lewis.

3. Implied ending

This is often the most tempting ending for an author and the most frustrating for a reader.

The conclusion, or 'what happens in the end', isn't explicitly stated or displayed. This is achieved by holding back information or leaving multiple logical explanations up in the air, allowing the reader to make up their own mind.

The audience is refused a fully informed outcome. They may be left thinking a range of questions:

• 'Did he or didn't he?'
• 'Is she alive or dead?'
• 'Is it that or is it this?'
• 'Is the narrator lying or telling the truth?'

This ending is very effective because it creates a talking point and keeps the reader pondering long after they've put down the book. For an author, this is ideal; if readers are thinking about you, they'll likely go looking for more of your work.

4. Twist in the tail

In theory, a story that ends in this way catches the audience by surprise with a completely unexpected turn of events.

As a result, the whole story is usually turned upside down, with a previously believed fact turning out to be false.

This may involve a character 'coming back' from the dead, a hero revealing themselves as a villain (or vice versa), or a new and vital piece of information coming to light at the last minute.

A 'twist' ending is good for playing with readers' emotions. You can bring them up quickly or send them crashing down, depending on what route you decide to take with your story. Either way, you can cause a dramatic shift in a reader's attitude.

5. Tie-back

To put it simply, a story written in this fashion will begin and end in the same way. The ending is revealed first before the author fills in the details of how that ending came to be. While this may take away some of the suspense for a reader, a clever author is still able to introduce twists and surprises.

A tie-back ending also allows for a very focused method of writing – it's always easier to navigate if you know where you're going, right?

It also creates a feeling of balance and equilibrium for the story.

6. Crystal ball

This conclusion goes 'beyond the ending' in a way, looking into the future.

It explains what happens to the characters years after the main events of the story.

Authors and readers alike may think they want this ending – understandably, they want to see more of their favourite characters – but most of the time, it may not really be necessary.

A common way of writing a 'crystal ball' ending is with an epilogue.

An example might be a section in which the perspective is from the main character's child, who was absent from the main story. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows fits nicely into this category, rounding off the series with an epilogue set 19 years after the main story.

Activity

Write your full story Starting with an exciting ending and then moving to Step 1: Sizzling start, Step 2 etc. Use the prompt below to give you ideas.

A New Way to Travel (writing prompt)