Creative Writing: Setting Description and Story Openings

This engaging PowerPoint lesson helps students develop their creative writing and descriptive skills by exploring how to build stories from visual prompts. Using striking images as inspiration, learners consider genre, character, and plot, before writing their own story openings.

Ideal for KS3 English, Functional Skills, or creative writing workshops, this activity encourages imagination, inference, and use of descriptive techniques.

What’s Included:

A series of image-based prompts to inspire writing

Guided questions to support analysis and creativity:

What genre of story would have this setting?

What type of characters would you expect in this setting?

What key event might happen here?

Write the opening paragraph inspired by this image

Identify three descriptive techniques to use in your writing

Explore colour imagery by researching and describing three colours from the image

Encourages creative thinking, language technique development, and imaginative vocabulary

Learning Objectives:

To identify how setting influences genre and character

To generate ideas and events linked to a visual image

To use descriptive and figurative language effectively in creative writing

Perfect for:

KS3 English (Years 7–9)

Functional Skills English (Entry 3–Level 2)

Creative writing or literacy support lessons

Cover lessons or quick writing starters

Format:

PowerPoint (.pptx) | Fully editable | Suitable for classroom or online teaching