help me end my creative writing? (gcse english lang aqa)

basically ive written this so far and i dont know how to end it. any suggestions?

Night has fallen early. The dark grey rainclouds have cloaked the sky and obscured the light totally – even though it is only 4pm. Rain continues to fall, making the black pavements appear greasy. It falls onto the lamppost, covering the dimmed white light in silver strands that stick to the glass. It falls onto the canopy of the hornbeam trees, dripping down onto the leaves, and splaying out in unpredictable trajectories. Where it soaks the grass, the scent of petrichor lifts into the air. Where it creates a film of water upon the path, the trails seem marbled and distorted. Where puddles are created, a million points prick the surface.

Lyra waits beneath the tree. She is waiting for the rain to stop, and contemplating whether to venture through the darkened Ruislip Nature Reserve (a short cut), or walk miserably round to the nearest bus stop and force herself onto the steaming, humid vehicle, and cram herself amongst damp strangers on polyester seats…

Resigned, she shuffles from beneath the tree, tucks her long plaits into her coat, and lifts her red hood above her head. It flops forward, concealing all but the floor in front of her. She places her earbuds in and walks swiftly through the labyrinthine paths.

She walks swiftly, her footsteps measured to the rhythm of the beat. She is not so cold now, and – because she is sheltered by the tall, thick trees – she is beginning to almost enjoy her journey. After a long day of school, it is a relief to be alone. She even begins to breathe the lyrics of her favourite song, imagining that she were at home.

But she isn’t – and she has become lost in the music, and consequently lost on her way. The tracks are not signposted especially well, and they wind in a meandering way around the black, dormant lido - which seems always a few steps away, regardless of where she treads. The tracks are also becoming narrower, the understory is overgrown, and the forest floor is encroaching – as if the tendrils of weeds hoped to catch her feet. The damp begins to seep through her slipper-soft shoes, and into her tights.

Suddenly, she hears a sound – the breaking of twigs? Perhaps she is near the opening than she thought! She quickens her pace.

But, the sound is behind her.

She pauses her music, and peers around. All she can see is the smothering darkness.

So, she continues forward – hoping to see lamplight. By now, her eyes are wide, her heart is thumping, and the breathing is loud.

It is so loud that she doesn’t expect the warble of the robin – until it flies from behind a tree and across her path. Lyra’s blood runs cold as she realises that it is not a robin at all, but an owl. An entirely silent owl. She realises that the whistle has come from someone or something directly behind her.

She begins to run.

No longer worried about the rain, or her uniform, she plunges between the branches. “Run quicker! Faster!” she screams inwardly, pleadingly. But the fallen leaves are slippery, and the mud beneath is unstable.

She slips, losing her shoe.

Then, a branch catches her bag. She wrestles with it for a few seconds. Before, resigned, she shrugs it from her shoulders and races on without it. Not long after, she is already exhausted, and stops for a moment, panting and convinced that she has escaped whatever malevolent being was after her. Lyra tilts her head and listens to the forest, which is now eerily silent, and wonders if she had imagined the whole thing. If the twigs breaking had just been the drums in the song. If the whistle had just been the wind through the trees.

Lyra counts to three in her head and turns around, to prove to herself that this is nothing but her imagination. Her brain is simply extra jumpy after a long English lesson of creative writing. This was a nature reserve, not some terrifying fairytale forest.

The man is at least six and a half feet tall, his face smeared with mud and his clothes, a probably once pristine two piece suit, are in rags, hanging off his emaciated frame. His hair is longer than Lyra’s ebony curls, down to the middle of his back, and mahogany tendrils of hair shoot out from his face, much too wild to be called a beard. But most terrifying of all to Lyra is the savage glint in his eyes and the razor-sharp gleam of his teeth as he bares his teeth at her in the moonlight.

He drops something onto the forest floor. Her bag.

Lyra screams and makes to run away, but without the sturdy grip of her shoe, her right foot slips in the mud, and she falls flat onto her face, mud rubbing into her skin. The smell of petrichor she had been admiring earlier turns sour in her nose as the man towers over her. Lyra scrambles to her feet, her other shoe falling off

Reply 1

full-size-hustle

This is really good... you could maybe end it with the tone of the story shifting where it is revealed that the gloomy atmosphere was simply a figment of her imagination, ending with the mysterious figure offering her a hand after her trip...
Also do you have any advice on how I can write like this... I really struggle with writing quality work while still creating it within the time limit. Thanks!

Reply 2

maryamaishah

Original post by full-size-hustle

thank you for the advice!! with regards to your question, what ive been taught is to learn a story that will pick up all the marks, and then just plan how to flex it to the question. ideally you should have two pieces prepared that you should be able to flex to any task given. my teacher was also saying if you're struggling for ideas look to previous things that you've read or watched that might work. past experiences. but also don't go too complex- the examiners reports always say that weaker responses tend to go at too great a scale, and so candidates lose marks.

maybe if you've previously written something (for a mock or in class test) that's gone really well, perfect that so you have one ready to go and then start working on a second piece.
(if you want more advice, or me to read something, im happy to!!)

hope this helps!!

Reply 3

full-size-hustle

I will definitely give it a shot, however I am really worried that I will find it really hard to link the story to the question as it could literally be on absolutely anything. Do you have any plots or pre planned pieces of stories that I can take a look at so I can get a better idea of how to create my own one which will be able to link to many questions. Thank you so much :smile: