Creative Writing Lesson Plan: Write Your Own Story
KS2 English
Year 3 – Year 6
Duration: 60 minutes
Overview
In this lesson, pupils plan and begin writing a short original story. They create characters with distinct personalities, build a setting, and structure their narrative around a central problem and resolution. The lesson links directly to the Storywizard platform, where pupils can turn their story into a real printed book.
National Curriculum Links
Strand
Objectives
Writing — composition
Plan writing by discussing and recording ideas; draft and write by organising paragraphs around a theme; use a range of sentence structures.
Writing — vocabulary, grammar
Use expanded noun phrases, fronted adverbials, and varied sentence openers to add detail and interest.
Spoken language
Participate actively in discussions, taking turns and listening to the contributions of others.
Learning Objectives
Pupils can create a believable character with a name, appearance, and personality.
Pupils can describe a setting using the five senses.
Pupils can structure a story using beginning, problem, and resolution.
Pupils can write with increasing confidence and enjoyment.
Resources needed
Storywizard Character Profile Sheets (one per pupil — print from storywizard.uk/character-sheet)
Storywizard Story Planners (one per pupil — print from storywizard.uk/story-planner)
Whiteboard / display
Pencils and exercise books or plain paper
Lesson Structure
Time
Phase
Activity
0–10 min
Hook & discussion
Show the class a simple story cover (draw one on the board or use a class book). Ask: "What makes a story exciting? What do all your favourite stories have in common?" Draw out: characters, a problem, and an ending. Write these on the board.
10–20 min
Character creation
Hand out Character Profile Sheets. Pupils invent their main character — name, appearance, personality, and what they want most in the world.
Share examples. Discuss: what makes a character interesting? (Flaws, fears, and funny habits make characters real!)
20–35 min
Story planning
Hand out Story Planners. Pupils plan their story in three parts:
Beginning — introduce the character and setting
Problem — something goes wrong or a challenge appears
End — the problem is solved and the character learns something
Circulate and prompt with questions: "What does your character want? What gets in the way? How do they feel at the end?"
35–55 min
Writing
Pupils begin writing their story from their plan. Encourage them to:
Start in the middle of the action (in medias res)
Use dialogue to show character personality
Describe the setting using at least two senses
Lower ability: write in bullet points or sentence starters provided. Higher ability: add a subplot or a twist.
55–60 min
Share & reflect
Two or three volunteers share their opening paragraph. Class feedback: one thing they liked, one question they have.
Introduce Storywizard: "Would you like to see your story become a real printed book?"
Differentiation
Lower ability
Middle ability
Higher ability
Sentence starters provided. Use character sheet as a writing scaffold. Focus on one paragraph.
Full story plan completed. Aim for 3 paragraphs. Peer review with a partner.
Add a second character with a contrasting viewpoint. Include a twist. Aim for 5+ paragraphs.
Extension: Turn it into a real book
Pupils can take their stories home and work with a parent or guardian to submit them on storywizard.uk. The Storywizard platform helps children expand their story, illustrate it, and print it as a real paperback book — with their name on the cover as the author. Schools can contact us at help@storywizard.uk for school discount codes and class booking information.
Assessment
Can the pupil describe their character in detail?
Does their story have a clear structure (beginning, middle, end)?
Have they used descriptive language to build setting and atmosphere?