Today we are going to look at the structure of the caravan story and use that as a basis for writing our own story. This is what we call a warning story. The adult gives a warning, the characters ignore it, end up in bad situation, then problem gets sorted, and an apology given to the adult.
Look at the breakdown of the story.
| The caravan |
| Mitch is warned not to play by the pylon. |
| Description of the pylon and the nearby caravan. |
| They go to the caravan. |
| In a storm, the pylon falls onto the caravan roof. |
| Trapped, they try to escape. |
| They manage to escape through the broken door. |
Now look at how this could be just a general story.
| The underlying pattern |
| The main character is warned not to go to a dangerous place. |
| The dangerous place is described. |
| The main character and a friend go to the dangerous place. |
| A disaster occurs, e.g. they are trapped. |
| Rescue attempt, e.g. the characters try to escape. |
| The rescue succeeds, e.g. they escape. |
This is how you will plan your own warning story. I’d like you to think about different settings that could be a bit dangerous, where the adult might tell the children not to go. For example, an old school, an old church, an old cabin and so on. You could do this as a little spider diagram.
When you have decided on your setting, then I’d like you to fill in the table below with your ideas. This will be the plan for writing your own story.
