PRACTICAL IDEAS
Writing a fifty-word story
Phil Keegan describes a creative writing activity.
W
hen creativity is mentioned,
it is often assumed that it is
all about having the freedom
to express oneself unencumbered by
restrictions or rules. This may often
be true, but creativity can also be
supported by imposing a restriction. The
challenge of sticking to it can actually
kindle the creative spark.
The activity described here was inspired
by a task from ‘A Whole New Mind’
by Daniel Pink, which is not an EFL
book but which is full of great ideas
for developing creativity and I highly
recommend it.
The task for the students is to write a
story that is exactly fifty words long. Not
one word more or less is allowed and
contractions count as two words. I think
it is necessary to expose the students
to a model story to show how it’s done
and, in fact, I usually use the one from
Dan Pink’s book1.
Here it is:
Staying overnight with friends, his
sleep was disturbed by vivid dreams:
a thief broke in, stole everything in
the house and carefully replaced
every item with an exact replica.
Next morning he told his friends ‘it
felt so real.’
They looked at him, confused, and
said ‘But who are you?’
For lower levels, it is probably advisable
to write a simpler story with less
complicated language.
There are many ways of introducing
the story to the class. Here are some
suggestions:
1 I am very grateful to Dan Pink for granting me permission to use his idea and to reprint the model story.
22 Modern English Teacher Volume 21 No. 2
• Simply give it out and ask students
to read it and comment or discuss it
in small groups.
• Dictate the story to the class. The
students write it down and then
comment or discuss it in small
groups.
• Cut the story into strips (see
Appendix), stick the strips around
the room, put the students into pairs
and do a running dictation. I usually
make this a sort of competitive
activity and play upbeat jazz rock
music while they are doing it. Once
all the strips have been written down,
the students then have to work out
the correct order. As soon as they
think they have the story in order,
they can compare with other groups
and comment and discuss the story.
It is also an idea to have students
write up the story on the board,
perhaps different pairs writing a
different line each. Alternatively, the
students can dictate the story to the
teacher who writes it on the board.
• Cut the story into strips, put
students into groups of eight, give
each student one strip. Students
read out their strip and then have
to decide the order of the story and
write it out. It’s also possible to put
the students into smaller groups and
give each student more than one
strip. It’s important, however, that
they listen to each other and not
read each others’ strips.
The next stage is to point out that the
story is exactly 50 words long. (I have
tried asking students if they notice
anything about the story or the length
of the story, but no one has ever
picked up on the fact that it is 50 words
long, so I have given up on that in the
meantime).
I then put the students into pairs and
ask them to write a 50-word story.
It must be exactly 50 words and it
is important to make sure that the
students understand that contractions
count as two words. I usually allow a
completely free choice concerning the
topic, but that’s not a must. The teacher
or the students could also determine
a topic. The task of making the story
exactly fifty words requires good editing
skills and this process is both useful and
engaging. The teacher can circulate and
help during the writing part, pointing
out such things as ‘as a result of’ is four
words but ‘thanks to’ is two words, or
that ‘all of a sudden’ or ‘out of the blue’
are four words, but ‘suddenly’ is only
one.
Once they have finished the story, there
are again a variety of options:
• Students read their stories to each
other and then talk about them.
• Students dictate their stories to each
other and then talk about them.
• Students make a poster by writing
out their story on A3 paper. The
posters are then stuck on the wall
and everyone walks around reading
and talking about them.
• Students make a wall dictation,
perhaps as a homework activity, and
the procedure described above can
be followed.
I have done this activity with learners
of English as well as with teachers at
teacher training workshops. No pair or
group has ever failed to come up with
a story of some kind and the students
mostly really enjoy it.
 PRACTICAL IDEAS

Appendix

Fifty-word story

REFERENCES
Daniel H. Pink (2006) A Whole New
Mind: Why Right-brainers Will Rule the staying overnight with friends
Future. Riverhead Books

Phil Keegan his sleep was disturbed by vivid dreams

a thief broke in

stole everything in the house

Phil Keegan is a teacher trainer and
writer. He has worked in the UK,
the USA, Germany, France, Austria,
Turkey and Malaysia. He is the author
of In My Opinion (2009), published and carefully replaced every item with an
by Prolingua Associates in the USA.
Although interested in all aspects of
Communicative Language Teaching,
he is particularly interested in bringing
creativity into the language classroom. exact replica
For more information please see:
www.philkeegan.com
Email: elt@philkeegan.com

next morning he told his friends ‘it felt so real’

they looked at him, confused,

and said ‘But who are you?’

Volume 21 No. 2 www.onlineMET.com 23