Writing Task Horror Story

Year 9 Writing Task – Horror Story

Genre: A short story (Narrative) written to SCARE the reader. The writer uses descriptive language and imagery and techniques (such as building suspense or tension or leaving details to the reader’s imagination) to stimulate the reader’s imagination. Making them believe what they fear could be real…

Your Task: You are to write a short horror story that includes many of the traditional elements that you would expect to find in a scary story, such as: - The language of horror (example: eerie, blood-curdling and terrifying) - The building of suspense to create suspense and reader engagement - Carefully detailed archetypes (example: Dracula, serial killer or ghost type), or - Unique and unusual characters - Shocking events or unexpected twists that the reader could not possibly predict - Descriptive words that create a sensory experience - An ending that may leave the reader feeling uncomfortable, that the story could be true…

Story length: 600 - 800 words

Task Criteria: - Appropriate story structure (introduction, conflict and resolution) - Sentences and paragraphing - Punctuation and spelling - Consistency of tense - Genre representation (language use and vocabulary) - Characterisation - Audience awareness – positioning the reader (scare factor!!) - Creativity – quality of writing

Real photo taken – The brown lady (1936) Preparation 1) Decide on the plot of the story (based on – own ideas, movie, real story, nightmare etc). 2) Decide on location for setting and create the ‘context’ of the story – Is it set in the past? In a particular country? Is the story a consequence of past events? What social, cultural and environmental factors will be included to make your story authentic? 3) Decide of the number and ‘types’ of characters.

Develop your plot 1) Decide the ‘main action’ for the story – (Examples: accident, murder, an escape, a meeting etc) 2) Create the ‘scene’ – the environmental or atmospheric elements that make the story scary (example: an abandoned farm house in the middle of a cold, snowy night) 3) A strong ending for resolution – needs to be satisfying for the reader, so they are not left asking questions

Important things to consider - Plan it out – in point form, in the order they should go - Take care of details – your reader needs to see, hear and experience what you intended them to! - Write, write, write your draft – get into the flow of writing to capture your ideas - Keep track of your characters – there needs to be resolution for all characters - Edit – proof read your own work for errors and improvements - Get someone else to read your story – have you succeeded in scaring the reader? - Redraft – for an improved results and final piece of writing

A few useful Websites: http://horror.fictionfactor.com/ http://www.wikihow.com/Write-a-Horror-Story http://www.spinetinglers.co.uk/ Year 9 English Writing Creative Writing – Horror Story

SKILLS 4.75 5.0 5.25 5.5 control of writing texts in various forms, produce, in print and electronic forms, composition of sustained narratives with including narratives, reports, texts for a variety of purposes, including expression of thoughts, feelings, some control of main plot and sub-plots explanations, procedures and speculating, hypothesising, persuading opinions and ideas and consistent character development persuasive texts and reflecting composition of imaginative and use of writing to explore complex issues use of writing to explore complex issues informative texts presenting challenging write extended narratives or scripts and to argue for a particular point of and POV ideas and issues view use of a variety of language techniques appropriate use of figurative language write arguments, reports, personal integration of complex ideas and to present an argument and influence to achieve particular effects reflections on, or evaluations of, texts multiple perspectives audiences to share a POV strategic use of headings, subheadings, effective use of vocabulary and the written conventions, structures and improve the accuracy and readability of graphics, photographs and art work to sentence structures appropriate to the features appropriate for a range of their writing support the text intended purpose of the text different text types use of a variety of software packages to effective use of strategies for redrafting, proofreading and redrafting for use a range of punctuation to support plan, organise, revise and present editing for audience appropriateness, accuracy, clarity, coherence and meaning electronic texts prioritising and sequencing ideas consistency of style control tenses and accurately identify and use speech edit their writing for clarity, coherence and consistency of style, and proofread and correct spelling, punctuation and grammatical errors.

Task Criteria VL L M H VH Name: ______Appropriate structure – Intro, conflict & Resolution VL L M H VH Sentences and paragraphing VL L M H VH Overall result: _____ Punctuation and spelling VL L M H VH Consistency of tense VL L M H VH Comments: Genre Representation (Language use and vocabulary) VL L M H VH Characterisation VL L M H VH Audience awareness – positioning the reader VL L M H VH Creativity – quality of writing VL L M H VH ______