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Crafting fiction: structure and perspective

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In Year 9 you can move beyond simply telling a story to shaping it on purpose. GCSE imaginative writing rewards writers who control structure, viewpoint and pace.

Structural choices

Practice extract

This original opening uses a single place and a tight time frame.

Pace and sentences

Long sentences can slow the reader and create a dreamy or tense build-up.
Short sentences speed things up or hit hard: 'Forty-eight.'
Repetition can structure a paragraph: 'Every time... Every time...'
Worked example

How does the extract build tension?

  1. Single setting and a clock ticking towards midnight: time pressure.
  2. Precise detail: counting tiles 'twice' shows he is anxious and waiting.
  3. Repetition: 'Every time... Every time' builds hope, then disappointment.

Answer: A tight setting, a ticking clock, small anxious actions and repeated hope and disappointment all build tension without naming Sam's fear.

Key idea

Choose structure on purpose: in medias res, flashback, foreshadowing, cyclical endings or a stretched moment. Control pace with sentence length and repetition, and show feelings through precise detail.

The interactive lesson includes the diagrams for this topic.

Check you have got it

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