1. Don’t forget: your homework is due Mon 16th
Two new vocabulary words today!
Brazen (adjective) bold and without shame
Example: He made a brazen attempt to jump the queue.
Clandestine (adjective) something that is secret or carried out in secret because it is illegal.
Example: It was the perfect location for such a clandestine meeting.

2. LO: How do I give my descriptive writing atmosphere?
Imaginative Writing
LO: How do I give my descriptive writing atmosphere?
Starter:
Glue the description in your book.
Highlight or underline all the FACTUAL INFORMATION about the setting

3. LO: How do I give my descriptive writing atmosphere?
Imaginative Writing
LO: How do I give my descriptive writing atmosphere?
When writing to describe or narrate, you need to be precise when describing settings or locations. You also need to convey the feeling or mood.

4. What factual information does the writer give?
The house is of grey stone. It is four stories high with a dark and heavy roof in order to resist the winds that might strip off a lighter covering. A pointed turret sits on the top. It appears to have been built about a hundred years ago, and to consist of many rooms on each floor. Above the elaborate stone porch, a balcony was once the house’s pride and joy, but now the stone is dark and stained, with rust-coloured liquid oozing down the once gleaming pillars. The many windows are almost all smashed, or entirely absent, and many a passer-by has looked up into the dark eyes of the building and thought they had glimpsed a shadow of a movement.

5. What words are included that give us a sense of the atmosphere?
The house is of grey stone. It is four stories high with a dark and heavy roof in order to resist the winds that might strip off a lighter covering. A pointed turret sits on the top. It appears to have been built about a hundred years ago, and to consist of many rooms on each floor. Above the elaborate stone porch, a balcony was once the house’s pride and joy, but now the stone is dark and stained, with rust-coloured liquid oozing down the once gleaming pillars. The many windows are almost all smashed, or entirely absent, and many a passer-by has looked up into the dark eyes of the building and thought they had glimpsed a shadow of a movement.

6. What words are included that give us a sense of the atmosphere?
The house is of grey stone. It is four stories high with a dark and heavy roof in order to resist the winds that might strip off a lighter covering. A pointed turret sits on the top. It appears to have been built about a hundred years ago, and to consist of many rooms on each floor. Above the elaborate stone porch, a balcony was once the house’s pride and joy, but now the stone is dark and stained, with rust-coloured liquid oozing down the once gleaming pillars. The many windows are almost all smashed, or entirely absent, and many a passer-by has looked up into the dark eyes of the building and thought they had glimpsed a shadow of a movement.

7. LO: How do I give my descriptive writing atmosphere?
Imagine this scene and a group of friends are here.
What factual details would we need to describe?
Label it up!

8. Once we have the factual description
How can we describe details to give this setting a sinister mood?
You can add ADJECTIVES of size, shape, colour, texture, and age.
NO emotive words – like eerie, scary, spooky. Factual description + mood!

9. The 5 golden rules of short story writing
Sub-heading:
The 5 golden rules of short story writing

10. 1. Use an ‘in medias res’ beginning
The Latin term ‘in medias res’ means ‘in the middle of things.’ As a short story is short - the author has to remove detailed background information on place and characters. We, the readers, are thrown right into a situation without any ideas of what has happened before.
In the middle of the eulogy at my mother’s boring and heart-breaking funeral, I started to think about calling off the wedding.
(Love Is Not A Pie by Amy Bloom)

11. 2. Only a few characters with little character description
You don’t have time in a 45 minute writing exam to write pages of character description. You also don’t have time to introduce lots of characters. You want 3 – 4 characters at most.
For example: Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone begins with three detailed paragraphs about the Dursley family.

12. 3. Limited description of setting
Setting is important in any fiction text, authors of short stories do no create lengthy and detailed descriptions of setting.
It is the meanings hidden within this shorter description that must add to the reader’s experience.
It was still too hot to play outside. Games at Twilight by Anita Desai.
Compare this description to the one on the following page.

13. 4. One storyline, and a simple one
You also don’t have time to tell a long and completed story. You have time for one setting, a handful of characters, and one simple storyline. You can’t make your story too complicated.

14. 5. Use a quick-build up plan
Straight into the story
1st interesting thing
2nd interesting thing
The most interesting thing – stuck upside down on Saw ride
Aftermath – get phone out and call 999

15. 5. Use a quick-build up plan
Write about a time when you, or someone you know, was lost.
Straight into the story
1st interesting thing
What does this writing prompt actually mean?
2nd interesting thing
The most interesting thing
Aftermath