Paper 1 Question 5: Creative Writing (AQA GCSE English Language) : Revision Note

Sam Evans

Written by: Sam Evans

Reviewed by: Kate Lee

Updated on

Paper 1, Section B: Question 5 has two options: narrative writing or descriptive writing. This is an overview of the narrative writing question.

Question 5: narrative writing summary

  • Question 5 asks you to write your own piece of fiction from a choice of 2 options

  • One of the tasks will ask you to base your writing on an image

  • It is more common for the narrative writing option to be based on a story prompt

  • You need to create a well-structured, convincing and compelling piece of writing

Top tips

  • Spend 10 minutes creating a clear plan

  • Think about what mood and tone you are trying to create:

    • Your setting and literary methods should reflect this tone

  • Consider the “message” of your story and how the characters represent this

  • Consider the perspective which will work most effectively for your story

  • You should aim to write 5–6 paragraphs

How to answer Paper 1 Question 5: narrative writing 

Let’s look at Question 5 from the June 2023 exam:

Exam prompt for 2025: Write a narrative about a human meeting an animal. Total 40 marks.
Paper 1 Question 5 (2025 only)

There are two changes to the wording for the exam question from 2026 onwards:

Change

Reason

Instead of being asked to write “a story”, you will be asked only to write the “opening” of a story

This is to help you create a well-structured and controlled piece of writing

Even if you are given a picture prompt, you are still encouraged to write “from your imagination

This is to encourage students to be more free and creative with their writing, and not feel like they have to describe only what is in the image

Let’s look at an example of the new wording for this question:

Exam instruction for 2026: Write a story opening about a human meeting an animal.  Total 40 marks available.
Paper 1 Question 5 (2026 onwards)

Step-by-step guide to Question 5

In order to achieve 40 marks for this question, you should:

  1. Read the two task options carefully:

    • Highlight whether you are writing a story or a descriptive piece

  2. Spend 10 minutes planning your writing:

    • Use a mind-map or a simple narrative structure to do this

    • Plan your characters — who they are, what they represent and how you will convey this

    • Decide on your narrative perspective — first or third person

  3. Write down some reminders of figurative language or literary techniques to include to add interest and detail to your writing

  4. Write your story, sticking to your plan

  5. Try to leave 5 minutes at the end to re-read your writing carefully, correcting any obvious mistakes you have made

Examiner Tips and Tricks

It is worth remembering that you will be given a choice of two tasks in the exam: one will be a narrative writing task, and the other will be a descriptive writing task. 

One will also give you a picture as a prompt for your piece of writing, but this could be to write a story or a description, so it is important that you read both options carefully.

How to get full marks on Paper 1 Question 5

  • Avoid confusing ideas in a paragraph:

    • Each paragraph should focus on one idea

    • Ensure all words are chosen to contribute to the effect you want to create

  • Do not confuse the tenses in a paragraph:

    • If you use a flashback, ensure it is in the past tense

    • If you use present-tense verbs for effect, ensure they are all consistently in present tense 

  • Do not over-use dialogue:

    • Only use dialogue if it drives forward the plot and you are able to punctuate it correctly

The highest marks are awarded for students who use complex and sophisticated vocabulary

How to plan your narrative writing

It is important to remember that writers plan their texts deliberately to make the reader respond in certain ways, and think and feel certain things. 

You should spend some time thinking about the question; not only the content, but also the order of your ideas.

In your answer you must:

  • Plan the structure of your piece of writing:

    • Order the information into roughly five to six paragraphs

  • Plan your setting:

    • This should create an effective mood

  • Consider the relevant information you need to give in order to create engaging characters:

    • Do you need to reveal everything at once, or can you withhold some information?

  • Use language techniques relevant to the style of writing:

    • You can plan what language features you will use

    • But these must reflect the overall mood or tone of your writing

Examiner Tips and Tricks

When you reach Question 5, you will already have read an example of creative writing in Section A. You can use the ideas and structure to inform your answer. 

This task in Question 5 asks you to think about how you can effectively engage your reader and produce a cohesive piece of creative writing. How did the writer of the source text do this? Could you use some of the same methods?

Below are some points on how you might approach the following task:

Write the opening of a story about a human being meeting an animal.

It is divided into plot, setting and characterisation.

Plot 

This task asks you to write an opening of a short story. As you have limited time to create a cohesive plot, it’s vital that you plan this out before you begin writing.

Writing a response which has not been planned is likely to have an abrupt ending, or no ending at all, which will not get you high marks. You should decide if your story ends with:

  • A clear resolution

  • A cliffhanger

Your resolution could be happy, or you can create a tragic ending. 

Your story needs to be controlled and concise. One of the easiest ways to achieve this is to use a narrative structure such as Freytag’s Pyramid:

Graph illustrating story structure, showing rising action from exposition and inciting incident to climax, followed by falling action and resolution over time.
Freytag’s Pyramid

5-part narrative structure

Exposition (setting the scene)

Stick to one main setting and start at that location:

  • Do not include a lengthy “journey” before the main action of your story starts

Hook your reader:

  • Give them clues as to what will happen later, but do not give everything away all at once

Decide which narrative perspective and tense you are going to write your story in:

  • First person “I” and the past tense are easier to control

  • Stick to no more than two characters and introduce them

Employ the five senses to create an atmosphere:

  • The scene’s mood should reflect your main character’s mood

This paragraph could end with an “inciting incident”, which prompts the rising action and moves the story forward

Rising Action

This paragraph should build tension, drama or interest:

  • It should directly lead to the turning point of the story (the “climax”)

This paragraph should also develop your characters:

Climax

This is the turning point of your story:

  • It is the moment everything changes and your characters cannot go back

Your protagonist could face an external problem, or an internal choice or dilemma:

  • Their choice is made in this paragraph

You should vary your sentence structure, length and language here for dramatic effect

Falling action

What happens in this paragraph should show the consequences of the climax paragraph

It also should focus on your characters’ thoughts and feelings as a result of the climax of the story:

  • This further develops a sense of characterisation

Resolution or denouement 

You can choose to resolve your story, or end on a cliff-hanger:

  • However, a cliff-hanger is not a sudden ending; it is a suspenseful ending

  • It is also important to avoid cliches, such as “I woke up and it was all a dream.”

Your setting and atmosphere could reflect a change from the setting or atmosphere you established in your opening paragraph:

  • Or it could refer back to imagery you used in your opening paragraph to create a cyclical structure

Examiner Tips and Tricks

Planning your plot carefully can help you structure your narrative writing, which helps you reach the top end of the mark scheme. For more details, check out our revision note page on how to structure creative writing.

Setting 

Building an effective setting is key as it contributes to atmosphere and mood.

  • Your setting should reflect your main character’s mood:

    • You may know this as pathetic fallacy, which reflects the character’s mood in the environment, e.g., “the lonely road”

  • As your setting reflects your character’s mood, your setting may change as the story progresses:

    • For example, your story may have started on a sunny afternoon, but may end as the sun sets or as a storm approaches 

    • However you decide to contrast the scenes, ensure this change reflects your character’s mood

    • Avoid mixing moods — for example: “The graveyard was dark, cold and smelled like fragrant flowers” is confusing for your reader

  • The best answers have built a clear setting before introducing other information, such as introducing character:

    • Describing setting is best done with sensory language as we experience places with our five senses

    • This means you could describe the dark, light, colours, sounds, smells and weather

    • The best way to clearly create setting is to allow an entire paragraph to describe the scene without confusing readers with other information like who is there

Examiner Tips and Tricks

When creating your setting, don’t give too much away at once.

Keep your reader guessing and asking questions, such as “What is going on?”, “Why is this like this?” and “Who is this?”. This helps create a sense of mystery or tension and engages the reader.

For more great tips and tricks on how to create great settings in your narrative writing, check out our revision note on how to create setting in creative writing.

Characterisation

To get top marks, you will need to build some elements of detailed characterisation. This means you need to consider what your characters represent. They may represent an idea, such as ambition, or be portrayed as a villain to represent injustice, or evil. 

It is best to limit yourself to two characters in the time you have.

Well-rounded characters are taken on a journey in which a character undergoes some form of development or change. Ideally, you should focus more on indirect characterisation than direct characterisation:

Direct characterisation

Indirect characterisation

The writer tells us directly what a character is like through description and narration, which gives quick detail but can feel shallow if overused

The writer shows us what a character is like through their actions, speech, thoughts, and how others react to them, helping create deeper and more engaging characters

For more great tips on how to develop your characters, including examples of direct and indirect characterisation, check out our dedicated page: Top Tips for Creating Characters in Creative Writing.

Learn more and test yourself

For more great tips and tricks, check out our fully annotated narrative writing model answer

You can also test yourself on Paper 1 Question 5 by building your writing skills with our Paper 1 Question 5 multiple-choice questions and by writing your own narrative writing and getting it marked by Smart Mark, our AI model created by English Language experts.

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Sam Evans

Author: Sam Evans

Expertise: English Content Creator

Sam is a graduate in English Language and Literature, specialising in journalism and the history and varieties of English. Before teaching, Sam had a career in tourism in South Africa and Europe. After training to become a teacher, Sam taught English Language and Literature and Communication and Culture in three outstanding secondary schools across England. Her teaching experience began in nursery schools, where she achieved a qualification in Early Years Foundation education. Sam went on to train in the SEN department of a secondary school, working closely with visually impaired students. From there, she went on to manage KS3 and GCSE English language and literature, as well as leading the Sixth Form curriculum. During this time, Sam trained as an examiner in AQA and iGCSE and has marked GCSE English examinations across a range of specifications. She went on to tutor Business English, English as a Second Language and international GCSE English to students around the world, as well as tutoring A level, GCSE and KS3 students for educational provisions in England. Sam freelances as a ghostwriter on novels, business articles and reports, academic resources and non-fiction books.

Kate Lee

Reviewer: Kate Lee

Expertise: English Content Creator

Kate has over 12 years of teaching experience as a Head of English and as a private tutor. Having also worked at the exam board AQA and in educational publishing, she's been writing educational resources to support learners in their exams throughout her career. She's passionate about helping students achieve their potential by developing their literacy and exam skills.

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