Imaginative Writing: Techniques (Edexcel GCSE English Language)

Imaginative writing needs to engage and entertain your reader. You will be rewarded for your ability to write creatively and your attempts to vary vocabulary, punctuation and sentence structure for effect. The following guide will explore how to produce an effective piece of imaginative writing:

• What is imaginative writing?

• How to structure your imaginative writing

• Imaginative writing techniques

What is imaginative writing?

Imaginative writing could be a story, a descriptive piece, a monologue or a descriptive account of a real event. Whichever style you choose, you should make sure that you have carefully considered the tone and atmosphere you wish to create, and the style and register most appropriate for the piece you are writing.

Tone

Imaginative writing should develop a sense of character as well as mood. This means you should consider how your narrator or characters would behave and sound.  

In order to craft a tone which builds characterisation and mood, consider: 

• The perspective from which your story will be told: 

  • First-person characterisation can include monologues which express the narrator’s thoughts and feelings 

  • Third-person characterisation will generally include a description of the characters’ appearance and movements; choose verbs and adverbs carefully to “show” the characters’ reactions

  • If you use a third-person omniscient narrator, you can reveal to the reader the characters’ thoughts and feelings

• Consider how you can use sentence lengths and types in monologue and dialogue, as well as description of setting:

  • Short sentences can reflect tension and unease, e.g.: “No sound could be heard”

  • Longer sentences and listing can create a sense of being overwhelmed, or of abundance, e.g.: “The table was laden with apples, grapes, oranges, loaves of bread, chunks of cheese and an array of colourful vegetables”

  • Rhetorical questions can suggest confusion, e.g.: “Would I ever get it right?”

Imaginative writing should craft a tone of voice in keeping with the mood of the scene. This means your sentences should reflect the atmosphere. For example, if the scene is mysterious and frightening, your sentences should reflect this suspenseful mood. 

Style and register

The style of your imaginative writing is closely related to the language you use. The best answers show evidence of careful word choice and linguistic techniques. Your writing should help the reader visualise the person, place or situation being described.

The best way to do this is to: 

• Use vocabulary which helps the reader to picture what you are describing:

  • For example, describing something as “great” or “amazing” is telling rather than showing 

• Use sensory language to bring the scene to life:

  • For example, a deserted park at night requires a completely different description from a busy park during the daytime

• Emphasise key ideas or impressions using language techniques and imagery:

  • For example, you could use a simile to create associations about size or colour

  • Personification is a useful technique when describing weather or objects 

• Ensure you describe the important details:

  • For example, you do not need to describe every inch of a person or scene bit by bit, but instead focus on key, interesting features that develops the story or the sense of character

Form

Imaginative writing develops an idea to a conclusion. The best stories give the reader more than just strong characters and a series of events; they also make us think about important ideas. The question paper includes space for you to plan your writing, so you should use this to focus on what you will write about, how you will structure it, what impression and effects you want to create and how you will create them. 

In order to adhere to the conventions of story writing, it is best to: 

• Plan your writing in an order which takes your character (and reader) on a clear journey:

  • The best way to do this is to plan one main event

• Consider employing structural techniques such as a flashback:

  • This can give background information to the reader and provide context

  • Ensure you use past-tense verbs for this

• Develop your characters:

  • Consider essential narrative characterisations, such as “villain”, “victim”, “hero”, etc.

  • Decide on how your characters fit these descriptions 

• When describing people, focus on relevant details only:

  • You could focus on their body language or movements

  • If using dialogue, how your characters speak can reveal more about them than what they say, e.g., “shrieked”, “mumbled”, “whispered”

  • It is effective to repeat ideas related to colour

When considering the detail you should include in imaginative writing, it is useful to consider the types of things that bring a scene to life. These things are normally rooted in contrast. For example:

How to structure your imaginative writing

Imaginative writing responses should be deliberately structured. You should plan your response carefully as you have limited time to create a cohesive plot, and incomplete responses will not be able to access the full range of marks available.

Your story needs to be controlled and concise. One of the easiest ways to achieve this is to consider a five-part narrative structure, such as Freytag’s Pyramid: 

Remember, each paragraph does not have to be the same length. In fact, better answers vary the lengths of their paragraphs for effect. What is important is to develop separate ideas or points in each paragraph, and to avoid repeating the same descriptions throughout your response. 

Imaginative writing techniques

Once you have planned out the structure of your narrative, it’s a good idea to consider how to incorporate methods and techniques into your response. Below we have included some guides to help you when thinking about setting, characterisation and other linguistic techniques to make your narrative as engrossing as possible.

Setting

As this task assesses your ability to communicate clearly, effectively and imaginatively, it is important to consider how to use language constructively in a short story to convey an atmosphere or mood. Building an effective setting is key as it contributes to atmosphere and mood.

• Your setting should reflect your main character’s mood:

  • You may know this as pathetic fallacy, which reflects the character’s mood in the environment, e.g., “the lonely road”

• As your setting reflects your character’s mood, your setting may change as the story progresses:

  • Contrasting scenes is an effective way to convey ideas and to engage your reader

  • For example, your story may have started on a sunny afternoon, but may end as the sun sets or as a storm approaches 

  • Whatever way you decide to contrast the scenes, ensure it reflects your character’s mood

• The best answers build a clear setting before introducing other information, such as introducing character:

  • Describing setting is best done with sensory language as we experience places with all of our five senses

  • This means you could describe the dark, light, colours, sounds, smells and weather

  • The best way to clearly create setting is to allow an entire paragraph to describe the scene without confusing readers with other information like who is there

  • Ensure all of your descriptive language builds the same mood and avoid mixing ideas. For example: “The graveyard was dark, cold and smelled like fragrant flowers” is confusing for your reader

• However, do not give too much away all at once!

  • Keep your reader guessing and asking questions

  • Think of establishing a setting a bit like the game “Taboo”, in which you have to describe something without stating explicitly what it is

Characterisation

Even if you are writing from a first-person perspective and have no other characters other than your narrator, you will need to build some elements of detailed characterisation. This means you need to consider what your character(s) represent. They may represent an idea, such as hope or strength or abandonment, or you could include a villain to represent injustice or evil. It is best to limit yourself to no more than two characters given the limited time you have.

Writers might do this explicitly, for example by stating their physical attributes (“she stood fully six feet tall”). This is called direct characterisation. Alternatively, they might hint at a character’s qualities, or describe them through their actions or speech (“with a frown on her face, she trudged slowly to work”). This is called indirect characterisation, and allows a writer to show, and not tell, a reader what their character is like.

You can find out more about this in our article: What is characterisation?

Some of the ways to develop your characters in your writing include:

Linguistic devices

When considering your choice of language and the techniques you wish to employ, you must always remember that you are making deliberate choices for effect. It is important to consider the connotations of words and phrases, and how these may add depth to your writing. For example, do your word choices evoke certain emotions or feelings in the reader, or do they reveal aspects of a character’s personality, background or emotions? You should employ the principle of “show, not tell” in order to bring your writing to life in the reader’s mind.

Some of the devices you could use in your imaginative writing include: