Restricted writing produces great creative writing - jester

Restricted writing produces great creative writing
If you ask a student to write creatively about anything they want, in the belief that they will benefit from the freedom, you will often find that they wont be able to think of anything.
I have found that you can sometimes get great fantastic results from your students by setting them extremely restricted parameters and setting the task as a challenge.
For example:

1. Give them a short vivid scenario.
2. Tell them what happens next and ask them to write that out in their own words but…
3. They must imaginatively and creatively incorporate seven key words into their writing as smoothly as possible.
   Then, after they have finished, or if they get stuck, show them a worked example, provided below.
   You will find that because their imagination becomes engaged with the specific requirements of the task like magic, the process unlocks their creative writing.