This activity needs to be done with a sense of fun! It is about getting creative, not making a perfect story…

Activity 1: WHAT IF…

A great way to get creative is to ask ‘What if’ questions – eg what if aliens arrived on earth? Or what if two girls like the same boy?

So ask learners to complete these sentences:
Eg. What if two boys…
What if we invent something that can…
What if you find….
What if there is a….

Activity 2: PUTTING A STORY TOGETHER

Your learners have probably learned these terms in their lessons on short story in literature lessons::
Setting: where something takes place
Characters: who the people are in the story
Climax: the high peak of action
Resolution: how things are resolved at the end of the story
(There are more aspects to the short story but these are the ones we are going to concentrate on for this workshop.)

In groups, your learners are going to create a story using these elements.

1 First brainstorm various settings with them (at least five) and number them.

Eg 1 a forest,
2 a nightclub
3 a spaza shop
(think of at least 5 more)

2 Then collect some characters (this can include the characters they have developed previously, or new ones. Collect at least 8 and make them as detailed as possible (you could get learners to do this in pairs, with each pair contributing a character).

Number them eg:

1 girl, Thandile, 14 years old, loves soccer, is bullied at school.
2. Gangster Thabo, age 34, involved in cash heists, secretly wants to get out of the business.

3 Then ask learners to think of climaxes in movies – the high action. Think of at least 5. Number them eg:

1 There is a fight,
2 Some secret is discovered,
3 Two people fall in love.
4 Police storm a house

4 Now get learners into pairs and assign different numbers to each of the pairs:
Eg:
setting 1,
characters 1 and 2, and
climax 2.
(They get 1 of each thing except for character, where they get 2)

5 They will now have to create a story with a setting of a forest (1), characters Thandile and Tabo (1 and 2), and some secret will have to be discovered (2).
They will then need to resolve the story in some way.

6 Let them share their stories. They will probably be ridiculous and not make a lot of sense! But in the process, the learners will have fun and get to grips with the concepts of setting, character and plot (leading to climax) to prepare them for writing their own story.