Week 2 – Plot Boxes
This week’s activity:
Take the ideas from your word banks and create a basic plot.
Thanks for joining in with the Summer Writing Challenge, a summer of words, ideas and stories
- one step at a time!
Plot Boxes are an excellent tool to create stories. They can be adapted to suit your needs.
In the Summer Writing Challenge, we’re going to use a plot box with three parts.
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Part 1 will cover the beginning.
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Part 2 the main part of your story.
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Part 3 will give us the end.
It’s true that some writers do not like to plan, and for my adult writers that’s no problem.
However, for GCSE writers, the exam tells you to show your planning – it is a requirement! That’s where a plot box comes into its own.
To help us with our 99-word short story, we’ll also give each section a word count. You can decide the exact number, but I suggest something like:
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Part 1 = 25 words.
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Part 2 = 60 words.
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Part 3 = 14 words (which means we’re heading for a one or two sentence ending).
You can of course, write a shorter story. Look at this example of a three part plot box based on my word banks from week one.
Part 1
Intro = 25 words
A good week staying in the house.
Part 2
Main Story = 60 words
At the swannery, reflecting on going home, a difficult situation needs to be faced and a tough decision made.
Part 3
Ending = 15 words
Something is said or done to suggest a positive outcome.
If you tap on the SWC Examples button below, you can see my word banks from last week.
Notice how I’ve taken ideas from my word banks and put them in the plot box. I've ordered them to create a basic story plot. And, I've also included the word counts.
What we've done here is gone from the first step = word banks, to the second step = plot box, and we now see an outline of a story.
So, the activity for this week is to think through your word banks and write them into a plot box like me.
Remember, you are still at the planning stage. You can change things later. What you’ve done today is enough for today.
Also, don’t worry too much about the ending at the moment. We haven't yet thought of the characters we're going to use.
But with the work you have done today, you’ll be ready for next week, when we’ll be looking at step three, characters.
Don’t forget, you have the option to post your work in the comments on Facebook or email them to me on david@davidwritingtutor.com. I'll read every one and give you some feedback.
Here’s to a summer of words, ideas and stories – one step at a time!
David