Havo 5 Writing Task 6

Writing a horror story

You are going to write a horror story in groups of 3 or 4 people. This entire task, including reading and judging each other’s work, will take approximately 200 minutes in class, and maybe some of your own time, depending on how fast you progress.

Before you start writing, have a brainstorm with the members of your group. What makes a good horror story? Where should it take place? What scary stories can you think of? Need inspiration? Click here, here, or here.

Then, write an outline for your story. Who is the main character? What is going to happen to him / her? Etc.. The brainstorm and outline should take you about 50 minutes.

When you know what is going to happen in your horror story, you are ready to start the actual writing. You should do this with the group as a whole, do not divide parts of the story amongst yourselves! Your story should be 500-700 words long. That seems a lot, but it isn’t. One A4 page usually contains around 600 words.

You get about 75 minutes to write your story.

Next, take about 25 minutes to proof read your story. Be sure to correct all your mistakes (grammar, vocabulary, spelling, punctuation).

You story is now finished. In the last lesson you will read and judge the stories of the other groups in your class.

 

Reading each other’s work

  • Bring enough copies of your own story to class, your teacher will tell you how many you need.
  • You are going to read the stories that the other groups in your class have written. Obviously, you will read the stories individually.
  • You will judge these stories as a group. Use the checklist.
  • After you have judged a story, hand in your checklist (this way, other groups will not be influenced by your judgment).
  • Your teacher will let you know when you can move on to the next story.
  • Which group has scored the most points? Your teacher will have to do some math here…