Kent Test creative writing: original examples and practice topics
40 minutes: 10 to plan and 30 to write. The writing is not marked with the three test scores, but the headteacher panel may read it.
Use the 10 minutes to plan
- Choose your main character, the setting and the problem.
- Decide the choice your character makes, and how the story ends.
- Pick two details that will help your reader picture the scene.
- Leave a few minutes at the end to reread: full stops, capitals, speech marks and spellings.
An example story opening
Topic: write a story in which someone finds a message tucked inside an ordinary object.
The tin had been on Gran's shelf for as long as I could remember, a dented blue thing that rattled with buttons. Nobody ever opened it. So when it slipped from my hands and burst across the kitchen floor, I expected buttons. I did not expect the folded square of paper that skidded under the fridge.
I knelt on the cold tiles and fished it out with a spoon. The paper was soft as cloth, and the writing on it leaned forward, as if it were in a hurry.
If you are reading this, the tin has finally been dropped. Good. Go to the bottom of the garden and count six paces from the pear tree.
I read it twice. Outside, the pear tree stood black against the evening sky, its branches creaking like an old door. Gran was asleep in her chair, one slipper on and one slipper off. I could wake her. I should wake her.
Instead, I put on my coat.
Why it works
- It starts with an everyday object, then breaks the routine in the third sentence, so the reader wants to know more straight away.
- Details the reader can picture: a dented blue tin, the spoon under the fridge, one slipper on and one off.
- The message is short and set apart, so it stands out.
- Varied sentences: long ones to describe, then a one-line paragraph to show the choice that changes the story.
Twelve practice topics
Set a timer for 40 minutes, plan for 10, write for 30.
- Write a story in which someone finds a message tucked inside an ordinary object.
- Write a story about a character who discovers that a place they value is about to change.
- Write a story in which someone is trusted with an unexpected responsibility.
- Write a story set in a place that changes after everyone else has gone home.
- Write a story in which a journey changes when an unexpected passenger joins it.
- Write a story about an object that nobody seems to want.
- Write a story that begins when a character finds a key to a room nobody has opened for years.
- Write a story in which a storm changes someone's plans.
- Describe a place, real or imagined, where you feel completely at home.
- Write a story in which two people pick up each other's bags by mistake.
- Describe a busy market so that your reader can see, hear and smell it.
- Write a story about two people who become friends in a surprising way.