Writing question
Write a creative story based on this title:
The Storm
Practise this exact question with personalised feedback on your writing.
Understand the task
A storm provides both atmosphere and a source of conflict. Give the main character a concrete problem so the weather affects the plot instead of remaining background description.
- narrative arc
- sensory description
- tension
- pacing
Requirements to keep in mind
Write a creative story based on the title “The Storm”.
Plan your response
- Begin with a warning sign to create suspense.
- Use several senses, not just sight, to bring the storm alive.
- Give your character a problem caused by the weather.
- Vary sentence lengths when the action becomes urgent.
- Finish by showing what has changed.
Check your response against the task requirements. Leave time to review sentence clarity, punctuation and spelling.
Original atoply example response
Written by atoply, not an official school answer or mark scheme. Other successful responses are possible.
Reveal example and teaching notes
The Storm
The first warning was not the thunder but the silence. One moment, sparrows were quarrelling in the apple tree; the next, even the leaves seemed to be holding their breath.
I stood at the garden gate, watching a wall of purple cloud crawl across the fields. The air tasted of metal. Somewhere beyond the hill, thunder rolled like heavy furniture being dragged across a wooden floor.
“Inside, Leo!” Mum called.
I turned to obey, but a faint bleating stopped me. In the neighbouring field, a lamb had caught its wool in the wire fence. It tugged and twisted, frightened by the first hard drops of rain.
I scrambled over the gate. Wind snatched at my jacket as I knelt beside it. The wire had wound itself around one leg. My fingers shook, but I worked carefully, loosening one cruel loop after another.
A flash split the sky. For a heartbeat, the whole field shone white.
At last the lamb sprang free and bounded towards its mother. I ran too, shoes sinking into the mud. By the time I reached the kitchen, rain was hammering the windows.
Mum wrapped a towel around my shoulders. “What on earth were you doing?”
I looked through the glass. Across the field, two small shapes huddled safely beneath a hedge.
“Just getting someone home,” I said.
Learn from the example
- The opening uses the sudden silence of birds to suggest that something is wrong before the storm arrives.
- Freeing the trapped lamb gives the narrator a clear problem. The final line returns to that action, giving the short story a connected ending.