How to write a describe/narrate piece of fiction

AQA ENGLISH LANGUAGE PAPER 1: FICTION

All of the content for creative writing has been consolidated into the creative writing guides section of our website. You should look at the guides to the different areas of writing that are relevant to this task. They are listed below.

NOTE FOR YEAR 10: On 30th January 2025 AQA announced that they are making changes to the English Language GCSE for 2026. One of the more significant changes is to the wording of this question, which will now allow students to write the “opening of a story”. The mark scheme for this question is also changing slightly. Once we have a clearer idea of how this question will be marked, and in particular what they want from a story “opening” in terms of structure and resolution, we will make the necessary changes to our guides.

This guide is part of the English Language Paper 1 series:

  1. Paper 1 Question 2 - analysing language

  2. Paper 1 Questions 3 - analysing structure

  3. Paper 1 Question 4 - evaluating the statement

  4. Paper 1 Question 5 - writing to describe/narrate

Relevant creative writing guides for English Language Paper 1 Question 5

The following guides are specifically focussed on this task:

  1. How to create characters

  2. How to describe settings

  3. How to write direct speech

  4. How to use a 3rd person limited narrative voice

  5. How to control time

  6. How to use timeshift

  7. How to plan and structure a story

Previous
Previous

Paper 1 Question 4 - evaluating the statement

Next
Next

Paper 2 Question 2 - comparing the sources