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A Stormy Night

Descriptive Writing

Foundation

20 minutes

CSSE

Kent

Independent

The Prompt

“Describe a stormy night. Focus on what you can see, hear, and feel.”

Planning Hints

4 tips to help you plan your response

Where are you during the storm — inside looking out, or caught in it?

Use all five senses: the sound of thunder, the feel of wind, the smell of rain.

Build from calm to wild, or start in the middle of the storm.

Include at least three different literary techniques.

Starter Sentences

Suggested opening lines to get you started

“The first rumble of thunder was distant, almost polite, like a warning knock on a far-off door.”

“Rain hammered against the windows with a fury that made the glass shiver.”

“Outside, the world had been rewritten by the storm.”

Key Techniques to Demonstrate

Techniques the examiner will be looking for in your response

Annotated Model Answer

A high-quality example response with techniques highlighted

The first rumble of thunder was distant, almost polite, like a warning knock on a far-off door. I barely noticed it above the hum of the television. But the second was closer — a deep, rolling growl that rattled the windowpanes and made the dog retreat under the kitchen table. Then the rain came. Not gently, not gradually, but all at once, as though the sky had simply given up holding it. It hammered against the roof in a relentless percussion, each drop adding to a rising roar. The gutters choked and overflowed, sending silver waterfalls streaming down the walls of the house. I pressed my face to the window. The garden had been transformed. The lawn, neat and green that morning, was now a shallow lake, the grass barely visible beneath the shimmering surface. The old oak tree at the bottom of the garden bent and swayed like a dancer, its branches thrashing against the fence with each gust. Leaves torn from their stems spiralled through the air like tiny green helicopters. Lightning split the sky — a jagged, electric vein that illuminated everything for one breathless second. In that flash, I saw the world in photograph: the neighbour's bin rolling down the drive, a cat frozen mid-sprint across the road, the clouds above churning like boiling water. Then darkness swallowed it all. The wind howled. It was the only word for it — a high, keening wail that found every crack in the house and whistled through. The curtains twitched. A door somewhere upstairs slammed shut. The lights flickered once, twice, then surrendered, plunging us into a darkness that smelled of rain and electricity. I sat in the stillness, listening. The storm raged on, but there was something strangely peaceful about being inside while the world outside tore itself apart. The candle Mum lit cast a warm, wavering circle on the table, and in its glow, the storm felt less like a threat and more like a performance — wild, magnificent, and utterly beyond control.

Hover or tap the highlighted phrases to see the technique and explanation

Techniques Used in This Answer

Simile (x2)

Personification

Metaphor (x3)

Onomatopoeia

Contrast

Ready to Write?

Practice this prompt under timed conditions, just like the real exam. You have 20 minutes.

Planning Templates

Suitable for descriptive writing

4-Paragraph Plan (CSSE Style)

A focused structure for shorter writing tasks (15-20 minutes). Ideal for CSSE where you only write 2 compulsory paragraphs, but this plan gives you 4 strong ones if time allows.

4 steps|2-3 minutes