Narrative Writing Prompt - The Flood
Use this narrative writing prompt during English to engage your students in the writing process. Writing can be so challenging for some students because they struggle to generate ideas. Get your students to write all of their ideas down and share them with the class. Their main character could wake up to water at their feet and start panicking. Maybe they need to save their family from a flooded house. Your character could have the ability to breath underwater, and their mission involves saving people from flooded situations. Whichever way your students choose to go, remind them to start at the point of action. Get them to start with the flood waters rising. This will help them to write an engaging story from the very start.
Story Starter
“We have to go now!” Adelaide shouted at the top of her lungs. I had never heard her make such a shrill sound before. I thought it was one of my nightmares, and I was determined to sleep it at bay. I had, after all, become vast in the art of putting my emotions and imaginations to rest, especially those that kept me up at night.
Nevertheless, her sounds became more aggressive, and they soon morphed into something physical. Her frantic pushes and pulls effectively faded all slumber from my eyes. I groaned as my feet groggily hit the floor, and then I felt it. Like a master of stealth, it crept up the lower third of my legs slowly but surely. I knew what that meant. The water we were so afraid of had come to visit.
Narrative Writing Example
This narrative writing example details the events of a flood and a frantic protagonist. This story doesn’t move too far and takes place at the house of the main character. The thunderstorms have ceased and airy silence fills the air. Suddenly, the main character realises that the damn has broken and the inevitable is about to happen.
Writing Tip
Before you start writing, make a short list of vocab words that you think will fit well in your writing. As you write, try to integrate them in as best you can. Make it a habit of constructing high level sentences with strong vocabulary. But be mindful, trying to squeeze large words into your writing that don’t make sense can degrade your writing! Choose your words carefully.
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