Step Three – Into The Unknown

Chapter Five: A creative writing exercise to create some drama.

Now you are ‘into the unknown’ - the middle of your story. Look back at your structure. Choose your favourite idea from ‘into the unknown’

As the protagonist you have been thrown from an ordinary situation into an extraordinary situation.

Continue to write the journal you started in the Oppidum. As you write your journal try to make your new location and situation as different as possible form your previous journal entry. This is called dramatic contrast. Dramatic contrast helps to make your text exciting and gripping for the reader.

Consider theses five questions

• Where are you?
• When did you get there?
• Why are you here?
• How does it feel?
• Who are you with?
• How is it different from ordinary life at the Oppidum?

Here are some of my ideas:

I am in the middle of a muddy forest. Silvery shadows flicker and bounce, they cast shapes across the twisted tree trunks that look like animals, mysterious and mythic moonlight creatures. There’s a goat, there’s an owl, there’s a fox. I hope we do not meet any real wild animals tonight. We arrived in this dark spot undercover of trees just as the sun grew dim. I have not slept for days, we have marched on and on - there’s no end to it. My feet ache and I feel exhausted. Whenever it feels too much I remember why I’m here - because I made a promise, a promise to help my friends of the Iceni. Isolde is curled up under a tree fast asleep. Today she helped me learn how to fight. It’s good to know that I have friends here especially when it’s so different from life at the Oppidum. There’s no time for idle chat, no time for playing games or going for morning strolls. I close my eyes and imagine my favourite horse gallop in the field of ripe green, she lives up to her name - Radiant.