Narrative Writing Prompts for Australian Students

Why Narrative Writing Prompts Matter

Narrative writing is one of the most important text types students learn in primary school. It develops creativity, builds vocabulary, strengthens sentence and paragraph structure, and helps students understand how stories work — from character and setting to conflict and resolution.

Good narrative writing prompts do more than just give students a topic. They spark imagination, provide enough structure to get started, and leave enough room for individual voice and creativity. For a comprehensive guide to narrative structure, curriculum alignment, and NAPLAN writing preparation, see our Narrative Writing page. For Australian teachers, the best prompts also connect to familiar contexts — Australian landscapes, school life, family, and community — making it easier for students to draw on personal experience in their writing.

Not all narrative writing prompts are created equal. Different types of prompts serve different purposes in the classroom:

Story Starters

Story starters provide the opening sentence or paragraph of a narrative and ask students to continue the story. These are particularly effective for younger or reluctant writers because they remove the hardest part — getting started. A good story starter establishes a character, setting, or problem that students can build on.

Picture Prompts

Visual prompts use images to inspire narrative writing. Students examine the picture and create a story based on what they see — or imagine what might happen next. Picture prompts are excellent for visual learners and for developing inferential thinking.

"What If" Scenarios

These prompts present a hypothetical situation and ask students to imagine what would happen. For example: "What if you woke up and could fly?" or "What if your pet could talk for one day?" These prompts encourage creative and imaginative thinking.

Character-Based Prompts

These prompts give students a character with specific traits, a problem, and sometimes a setting, then ask them to write the story. This type of prompt helps students practise creating well-developed characters and narratives with clear conflict and resolution.

Recount-to-Narrative Prompts

These prompts ask students to take a real experience and retell it as a narrative with added creative elements. This bridges the gap between personal recount writing and imaginative narrative writing.

1. Model the Process First

Before asking students to respond to a prompt, model the thinking process yourself. Show students how you read the prompt, brainstorm ideas, plan your narrative structure (orientation, complication, resolution), and begin writing. Think aloud about your word choices and how you create interest for the reader.

2. Provide Planning Tools

Give students a graphic organiser or planning template alongside the prompt. This might include boxes for character, setting, problem, events, and resolution. Planning helps students organise their ideas before they start writing and leads to more coherent narratives.

3. Use Prompts as Part of the Writing Cycle

A single prompt should be used across multiple sessions:

• Day 1: Introduce the prompt, brainstorm, and plan
• Day 2: Write the first draft
• Day 3: Revise — focus on structure and ideas
• Day 4: Edit — focus on spelling, punctuation, and grammar
• Day 5: Publish or share

4. Differentiate with Prompt Complexity

Offer two or three versions of a prompt at different complexity levels. All students are writing a narrative, but the scaffold varies. Some students may get a story starter with a detailed plan, while others may get an open-ended scenario with minimal scaffolding.

5. Connect to Mentor Texts

Pair writing prompts with mentor texts that demonstrate the narrative techniques you want students to use. If the prompt involves a mystery, read a mystery picture book first. If it involves a personal challenge, share a narrative that models emotional language and character development.

The Australian Curriculum v9 for English places narrative writing within the Literacy strand (under "Creating texts") and the Literature strand (under "Creating literature"). Students are expected to create a range of text types, with narrative featuring prominently from Foundation through to Year 6 and beyond.

Foundation & Year 1

At this stage, students create short imaginative texts using familiar events and characters. They are learning to write simple sentences, sequence events in order, and use basic punctuation. Narrative prompts at this level should be simple, concrete, and supported by pictures or sentence starters.

Year 2 & Year 3

Students begin writing more structured narratives with a clear orientation, complication, and resolution. They use more varied vocabulary, dialogue, and descriptive language. Prompts can be more open-ended, encouraging students to develop original characters and settings.

Year 4 & Year 5

By this stage, students are expected to write extended narratives with well-developed characters, settings, and plots. They use paragraphs to organise their writing and employ a range of literary devices — similes, metaphors, suspense, and foreshadowing. Prompts should challenge students to think about audience, purpose, and narrative technique.

Year 6

Year 6 students write sophisticated narratives that demonstrate control of structure, language, and style. They experiment with narrative perspective, flashbacks, and complex sentence structures. Writing prompts at this level should encourage originality, voice, and deliberate craft choices.