In this article, we will focus on writing a story for the B1 Preliminary (PET) exam (including examples) which is one of the tasks to choose from in Part 2 of the writing B1 paper.

A story is a text about imaginary or real people and events told for entertainment. For this reason, you have full freedom to write, as you can make up most of the story. But just like it happens with every other type of writing, a story must follow a particular structure which makes sense to the reader.

You will be given a sentence to start with. You must then continue the story with a clear connection to the opening sentence. Remember, you will need to write about 100 words.

Check our Writing Guide below – to see how to write a story

Writing a story has the advantage that your imagination is not limited and you can come up with whatever you want and put it in your story. The only thing you need to stick to is the sentence your story begins with.

Below you can see a sample exam task:

Your story must begin with

As the plane flew lower, Lou saw the golden beaches of the island below.

You should begin your task analysis by asking yourself two questions:

We can assume the topic is a holiday as a person called Lou is on a plane flying over an island and he’s looking at the beaches. The plane is going lower so it might be getting ready to land.  So simply, your task is to write the story that will describe the further adventures of the main character Lou.

The second question is a little bit more open than the first one because you can pretty much write about anything you like the only restriction again is the first sentence and the situation that comes with it. You can make your story funny sad full of action or fantasy and include whatever you can imagine but connect it to the first sentence.

As we said above in the story you have to start with a given sentence that you get from the task “As the plane flew lower, Lou saw the golden beaches of the island below.” .

Don’t change the sentence in any way but simply copy it onto your answer sheet and begin your story from there.

Also, it is recommended to add one more sentence to complete the beginning of your story, for example:

As the plane flew lower, Lou saw the golden beaches of the island below. (add one more sentence =>) The sun was shining brightly, and he said to the woman next to him, “I’m so excited about my holidays!” 

Once you wrote the beginning you can move on to the main part of the story.  It is the most important part and here is where all the main events happen.

It is really important that the events that you write are in a logical order and that the language you use is interesting and correct.

In general, two paragraphs should be enough.

As soon as Lou got off the plane he left the airport and took a taxi to the city centre because he really wanted to swim in the clear water and sunbathe on the beautiful beach he had seen earlier.

However, when he arrived at the beach he saw that the weather was changing and five minutes later it was raining heavily. Lou ran into a bar and was surprised because someone shouted, “Hi, it’s you again!” 

If you look a little closer at this example you will notice that the language in which stories are written consists of some characteristic elements.

PAST TENSES

The first noticeable characteristic is that a variety of past tenses are used.

While we normally use the past simple to describe all the main events we might want to talk about things that happened before the main events or that were happening at the same time in this case we can use the past perfect or past continues.

As soon as Lou got off the plane he left the airport and took a taxi to the city centre because he really wanted to swim in the clear water and sunbathe on the beautiful beach he had seen earlier. However, when he arrived at the beach he saw that the weather was changing and five minutes later it was raining heavily. Lou ran into a bar and was surprised because someone shouted, “Hi, it’s you again!” 

                  – past tense forms

TIME EXPRESSIONS

Another very important feature in a story are time expressions because they help the reader to put all the events in a logical order and the reader can understand when each event happened.

As soon as Lou got off the plane he left the airport and took a taxi to the city centre because he really wanted to swim in the clear water and sunbathe on the beautiful beach he had seen earlier. However, when he arrived at the beach he saw that the weather was changing and five minutes later it was raining heavily. Immediately, Lou ran into a bar and was surprised because someone shouted, “Hi, it’s you again!” 

                  – time expressions

LINKING WORDS AND DIRECT SPEECH

Last but not least, you can use linking words and direct speech to make your story more attractive.

As soon as Lou got off the plane he left the airport and took a taxi to the city centre because he really wanted to swim in the clear water and sunbathe on the beautiful beach he had seen earlier.

However, when he arrived at the beach he saw that the weather was changing and five minutes later it was raining heavily. Immediately, Lou ran into a bar and was surprised because someone shouted “Hi, it’s you again!” 

                  – linking words and direct speech

What are linking words?

What is Direct Speech?

Last but not least, every story needs to get an ending.

It doesn’t matter if it’s a happy ending or a sad ending but make sure that your story ends in some way.

You can give your story a surprising ending or something funny but don’t feel too much pressure to do anything spectacular just make sure that the story ends.

There was a woman from the plane! They started to talk and became very good friends. 

As the plane flew lower, Lou saw the golden beaches of the island below. The sun was shining brightly, and he said to the woman next to him, “I’m so excited about my holidays!”

As soon as Lou got off the plane he left the airport and took a taxi to the city centre because he really wanted to swim in the clear water and sunbathe on the beautiful beach he had seen earlier.

However, when he arrived at the beach he saw that the weather was changing and five minutes later it was raining heavily. Lou ran into a bar and was surprised because someone shouted, “Hi, it’s you again!”

There was a woman from the plane! They started to talk and became very good friends.

Below are some examples of writing (B1 story examples are below)

Your English teacher has asked you to write a story.

Your story must begin with

Mark wanted to visit a friend, so he got on a bus.

Write your story.

Mark wanted to visit a friend , so he got on a bus. His friend’s name was Angelo. Mark wanted to arrive quickly because he had to give Angelo an important letter from a girl.

Mark sat down and opened the window. Suddenly there was a strong wind and the letter flew out. Mark quickly got off the bus. He ran after the letter, but then he had to stop at a traffic light. Where was the letter? He decided to run along the street again. He ran and ran and then he saw the letter, still flying in the wind. Then a young man caught it in his hand. Mark realized that the young man was Angelo and that he was in front of Angelo’s house!

This is a good story and it is well organized:

Submit your story for evaluation! Check what grade you would get! See more

Your English teacher has asked you to write a story.

Your story must begin with

Tom was watching TV at home when he heard a noise upstairs.

Write your story.

Tom was watching TV at home when he heard a noise upstairs. He turned off the TV and was very quiet for a few seconds. Then he heard the noise again. At first, he thought it could be the cat, but then he remembered that the cat was outside. He was very frightened, so his legs started to shake.

He went upstairs very slowly. He suddenly saw a big shadow on the wall. This strange shadow had three legs! He thought there was a monster in the bedroom. He walked slowly into the room and he saw his grandfather. He was dancing, using his walking- stick and a walkman!

Tom laughed and was very happy that there was no monster!

This is a good story and it is well organized:

Submit your story for evaluation! Check what grade you would get! See more

Your English teacher has asked you to write a story.

Your story must begin with

When Jenny looked out of the window, she couldn’t believe her eyes.

Write your story.

When Jenny looked out of the window, she couldn’t believe her eyes. There was an elephant walking down the street! Jenny closed her eyes and opened them again. She thought she must be dreaming.

The elephant was walking very slowly and was quite relaxed. It stopped at an apple tree and started to eat the fruit. Then, Jenny saw two men running towards the elephant. One of the men was dressed as a clown.

Jenny realised that they had come from the circus that had just arrived in town the day before. The elephant must have escaped.

It was the strangest thing she had ever seen in her life.

Submit your story for evaluation! Check what grade you would get! See more

Your English teacher has asked you to write a story.

Your story must begin with

I took a deep breath and knocked on the door.

Write your story.

I took a deep breath and knocked on the door. My boss was sitting at his desk and he looked very serious.

I was very nervous because I did not know why he wanted to see me.  He told me to sit down and then he said, “Don’t look worried, I just want to ask you something.” “Do you enjoy working here?” he asked. “Yes, I like it very much,” I replied.“I can see that everyone likes you and you are very good at your job. I would like you to be the new manager.”

I was so surprised!

Submit your story for evaluation! Check what grade you would get! See more

Your English teacher has asked you to write a story.

Your story must begin with

It started to rain heavily.

Write your story.

It started to rain heavily. I knew I was lost, and I didn’t have a coat or umbrella.

It was dark in the forest and I was scared. I didn’t know where I was going. Suddenly, I saw a small cottage in the forest. I  walked towards it but I was too shy to knock on the door. “Are you lost?” an old lady said to me. I turned around and a kind old lady was smiling at me. “Don’t worry everyone gets lost here. My son will drive you to the town.”

I was very happy that I was safe at last.

Submit your story for evaluation! Check what grade you would get! See more

Your English teacher has asked you to write a story.

Your story must begin with this sentence:

‘I took a deep breath and knocked on the door.‘

Write your story.

Your story must begin with this sentence:

‘Angela didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.’

Write your story.

Your story must begin with this sentence:

‘I was really worried about the journey.’

Write your story.

After writing your story, you can check it yourself using the writing checklist below.

Content

Communicative Achievement

Organisation

Language

Below you will find different expressions that you can use in different parts of the story. This is a set of expressions that you can use quite often if you learn them by heart beforehand.

It all began… When I first… At the beginning… It was a hot/cold summer/winter day. Once upon a time One day At the beginning When it al started

Suddenly All of a sudden Without warning Just at that moment Unexpectedly Out of the blue Out of nowhere Right away Straight away

In the end Finally When it was all over Eventually After everything that happened Luckily After all of that After everything that had happened Once and for all At the end of the day