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First Story

Creative writing charity for young people

  • Login
  • Donate
  • Programmes
    • Young Writers Programme
    • London Voice
    • Connect events
    • Young Writers Festival
    • Young Mentors
    • Young Writers Residential
    • Folio Academy Mentorships
    • Philip Pyke Memorial Prize
    • National Writing Day
  • Writers
    • Our ambassadors
    • Our writers
    • Become a First Story writer
  • Schools
    • Partner schools HUB
    • Resources for partner schools
    • Become a partner school
    • Sample writing by participants
    • Free writing resources
    • Free Festival Toolkit
    • Free copyright education resources
    • BBC Teach x First Story resources
  • Locations
    • East Midlands
    • Greater London
    • North West
    • Yorkshire
  • About
    • About First Story
    • News
    • Impact Report 2023/24
    • Impact stories
    • Staff and trustees
    • Vacancies
  • Support
    • Ways to support
    • Newsletter sign-up
    • Make a donation

Writing Exercises

Free classroom resources

Explore our creative writing exercises, intended for students in Key Stages 3-4 and for use in the classroom.

 


Origins

This exercise encourages students to think creatively about their own origins. It reinforces that our own lives and experiences i.e. our own stories, are rich, interesting, unique and important. …

OriginsRead More

Writing in colour

This exercise uses colours and objects as descriptive writing prompts. It encourages students to closely observe using all their senses and to experiment with bold imagery alongside subtle details. …

Writing in colourRead More

I remember

This exercise encourages students to use memories as a source of inspiration and creative material. Topics: writing autobiography and memoir; describing emotions and feelings; valuing our experiences. …

I rememberRead More

Finding gems

This fun writing task encourages creativity and develops confidence. The exercise helps find exciting new ideas and imagery through random juxtaposition. It uses play to generate structure. …

Finding gemsRead More

Plot: Where to Begin?

What makes a story? Where should stories begin? This two-part exercise identifies narrative engines and helps students break from ‘cradle to grave’ storytelling to focus on the interesting points. …

Plot: Where to Begin?Read More

Dialogue

Writers use what they see and (over)hear in real life as material. This two-part exercise explores differences between spoken and written dialogue. Focus areas: dialect, idioms, idiosyncratic styles. …

DialogueRead More

Tags and labels

This activity opens up a space for connection, even in difference. It encourages students to help point out the ways that we use tags, as well as the ways in which we are labelled by others. …

Tags and labelsRead More

Unusual vocabulary

This exercise develops descriptive writing skills and passion for language, through using made-up and portmanteau words. The exercise encourages individual responses and writing in any form. …

Unusual vocabularyRead More

Creating characters

This is a fun ice-breaker exercise to engage a group with writing fiction. It encourages students to develop a new fictional character through a focus on descriptive detail, mixing imagination and creativity with observation skills. …

Creating charactersRead More

Alternative Valentine’s

A fun poetry writing game for beginners. This exercise highlights cliches — in this case writing about love and romance — and encourages students to be more daring and original in their work. …

Alternative Valentine’sRead More

Famous opening lines

A more advanced exercise about beginnings. This is for writers who already have a reasonable level of confidence, needing only the smallest of prompts to get them writing. …

Famous opening linesRead More

Looking back

This exercise uses an object as a prompt to begin writing about life experience and memories. Physical objects often help take us back to a particular time or place. They can also be integral to the stories we tell. …

Looking backRead More

Cambridge Digital Library resource

A downloadable, nine-page resource, including icebreakers and exercises on the themes of cosmography and evolution, with stimulus pieces by Darwin and Tennyson. From the digital archive of the Cambridge University Library. …

Cambridge Digital Library resourceRead More

Autumn: observation and memory

Writing about a change in season is a great way of getting students to focus on evocative details. Combined with writing about a memory, it can encourage students to add concrete details to their writing. …

Autumn: observation and memoryRead More

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