11 Plus Creative Writing Ideas
If your child needs creative writing prompts to practise on, this article is the bank we use with our own students. Twenty five prompts grouped by type, plus a quick reminder of how to turn a prompt into a piece worth reading.
Use these one at a time, with planning, with feedback, and with at least a few rewrites. Better five prompts written carefully than fifty rushed.
Before the prompts: a quick reminder
A strong 11+ piece tends to do four things.
- Plan in two minutes. Setting, character, problem, action, resolution. On a scrap of paper.
- Open vividly. A sense detail, an action, a piece of dialogue, or a short sharp statement.
- Show, don’t tell. Physical detail, behaviour, dialogue, rather than naming an emotion.
- End on purpose. Resolution, twist, or echo of the opening.
If you want a deeper walkthrough of the technique, my guide on preparing for 11+ creative writing covers it in full.
Title prompts
These are the most common type of 11+ writing task. Children are given a single title and write whatever they like in response.
- The Last Letter
- The Door That Was Not There Yesterday
- Lost in the Snow
- The Promise I Kept
- Midnight at the Lighthouse
- The Ticket
- The Day Everything Changed
- The Stranger at the Window
Opening line prompts
Children are given the first sentence and have to continue from there. Particularly common in Habs Boys creative writing tasks.
- She had not meant to take it.
- The footsteps stopped just outside the door.
- It was the smell that I noticed first.
- He looked at the photograph one last time.
- Nobody believed her, of course.
- The clock had stopped at three minutes past midnight.
Image based prompts
Used by some independents. The child sees an image and writes a piece inspired by it. To practise, use a picture from a book of art, a photograph from a newspaper, or one of the prompts below described in words.
- An empty rowing boat drifting in the middle of a lake
- A child standing alone at a busy train station with a small suitcase
- An old wooden door covered in ivy
- A grand piano left abandoned in a snowy field
- A bird trapped inside a glass jar (then released)
Description prompts
Less story, more atmosphere. The skill being tested is precision of language, sensory detail, and rhythm.
- Describe a place you remember from when you were younger.
- Describe a storm at sea.
- Describe an empty classroom at the end of the day.
- Describe waking up early in the morning before anyone else is awake.
- Describe a market on a busy Saturday.
Discursive or opinion prompts
Used by some independents and increasingly by interview rounds. The child is asked to give and justify an opinion.
- Should children be allowed to choose their own school?
- If you could change one thing about the world, what would it be and why?
- Is it ever right to break a promise?
How to use these prompts well
Three rules:
- One prompt, one piece, one focus. Pick a single skill to work on per piece (openings, sentence variety, dialogue, structure). Mark only that skill. Move to the next focus next time.
- Plan, write, then improve. First version is for getting it down. Then sit together and improve one specific paragraph or section. Rewriting beats writing fresh every time.
- Read good writing alongside. A child who reads Katherine Rundell, Frank Cottrell Boyce, Onjali Q. Rauf or Piers Torday alongside their writing practice will write better than one who only practises.
When to add timing
Year 5 spring term is when timed conditions should begin. Start at 30 minutes. Reduce to 25 by Year 5 summer term. By autumn of Year 6, target school exam timings.
Before timing, practise without time pressure. The skill of writing under time is built once the underlying skill of writing is in place. Reverse that order and children panic.
Our Sunday English Masterclass gives children weekly creative writing practice with structured feedback, exposure to the kinds of titles used by Latymer, Habs Boys, NLCS and Henrietta Barnett, and group discussion of strong and weak openings.
Frequently asked questions
How long should it take my child to plan a piece?
Two minutes maximum in a 30 minute timed piece. The plan is a quick map, not a draft. Once it is down, they should be writing.
My child has good ideas but cannot get them down on paper. What do I do?
Probably an issue of structure, not ideas. Use the plan template religiously. The act of writing five short lines on a scrap of paper before starting often unlocks the actual writing.
How important is handwriting?
Less important than legibility. Examiners are not assessing penmanship, but they cannot mark what they cannot read. Address legibility early in Year 5 if it is a problem.
Should we use writing prompts or free choice?
11+ exams use prompts, so practise prompts. Save free choice for fun reading or journal time. The skill of responding to a given title under pressure is a specific one and needs specific practice.
What should we read to improve my child's writing?
Excellent contemporary children's authors: Katherine Rundell, Frank Cottrell Boyce, Onjali Q. Rauf, Piers Torday, David Almond. Reading good prose by other children's writers is the single most reliable way to improve a child's own writing voice.
