Writing question
Write a story which features the stopping of time.
Practise this exact question with personalised feedback on your writing.
Understand the task
Choose one consequence of time suddenly stopping and explore it consistently. A clear rule, a character decision and an inventive complication make the premise compelling.
- imaginative premise
- causality
- narrative structure
- originality
Requirements to keep in mind
Write a story in which time stops.
Plan your response
- Set clear limits for how stopped time works.
- Describe ordinary things frozen in unusual ways.
- Give the character a meaningful choice.
- Use the return of sound and motion for impact.
- Show a consequence when time resumes.
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 Minute That Never Ended
At precisely 8:42, everything stopped.
The football hung in the air above the playground. A pigeon hovered with its wings outstretched, and a raindrop stood motionless an inch from my nose. Even the school bell had fallen silent halfway through its ring.
I took one cautious step. Then another. My shoes made the only sound in the whole world.
At first, it was wonderful. I walked between the frozen pupils, examined a perfect circle of splashing water and rescued a paper aeroplane before it could land in a puddle. But when I reached the gate, I saw a cyclist balanced dangerously at the edge of the road. Just beyond him, a delivery van had stopped with its front wheels turned towards the pavement.
If time started again, he would fall straight into its path.
I pushed against the bicycle. It felt strangely heavy, but inch by inch I moved it back towards the kerb. Then I found a way to steady the rider against the garden wall.
Without warning, the raindrop struck my nose. The bell finished ringing. The football thudded against the grass.
Across the road, the cyclist blinked and looked at the space beside the van. He frowned, as if he had forgotten something important, then rode away safely.
Nobody noticed my muddy hands. I didn't mind. For once, a single minute had been long enough to make a difference.
Learn from the example
- The example focuses on one situation, keeping the action easy to follow. Notice how a detail, action or decision moves that situation forward.
- Use the task's requirements to plan the development and ending of your own response; an opening alone does not demonstrate a complete story arc.