WRITING

How to Write a Short Story for the B1 Preliminary Test (PET)

teacherjulieta19 Comments
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A short story is a piece of fiction that has a limited number of words and a few characters.

Parts of a short story
  • Title: It summarizes the whole story, or it is related to the main theme. The theme is the central idea or belief in a short story.
  • Exposition: It is the beginning of the story where you introduce the main characters. It also serves as the introduction to the next part.
  • Climax: It is the action part where the main characters try to solve the conflict or problem.
  • Resolution: In this part, the conflict is solved.

Let’s see a short story sample for the B1 Writing test

Useful vocabulary for a short story

Time expressions:

  • at that moment
  • as soon as
  • _____ minutes later
  • just in time
  • then
  • after that
  • meanwhile
  • while
  • one morning in + month
  • one afternoon in + month
  • one evening in + month

Adverbs and adverbials to spice up your story

  • suddenly
  • in the end
  • eventually
  • unexpectedly
  • right away
  • nearly
  • actually
  • in fact
  • apparently
  • gradually
  • basically
  • obviously
  • anyway
  • all of a sudden
  • without warning

Finishing your short story

  • in the end
  • eventually
  • finally
  • luckily
  • when it was all over

Verb tenses used for short stories

Short stories usually take place in the past, for that reason, the most common narrative tenses you should use for your short story are:

Writing Practice 1

You are going to write a short story about a past mistake you have made.

Plan your story

The following questions can help you make your own story

  1. Where were you?
  2. What were you doing?
  3. What was happening around you?
  4. What surprising thing happened suddenly?
  5. What did you do?
  6. What did you think/ say?
  7. How were you feeling
  8. How did the story end?

Write your story in about 100 – 120 words in the comment section below.

Checklist:

  1. Title: Have you included a title that accurately reflects the content of your story?
  2. Exposition: Have you introduced the characters, setting, and plot of your story in a clear and concise manner?
  3. Action part: Have you included a sequence of events or actions that develop the conflict and engage the reader?
  4. Resolution: Have you provided a satisfactory conclusion to your story that ties up any loose ends and provides a resolution to the conflict?
  5. Adjectives and Adverbs: Have you used descriptive words (adjectives) and words that describe actions (adverbs) to create vivid imagery and convey your story’s mood and tone?
  6. Narrative tenses: Have you used the appropriate narrative tenses (simple past, past continuous, past perfect, past perfect continuous) to tell your story consistently and clearly?
  7. Clear ideas: Have you organized your story in a logical and coherent manner, ensuring that your ideas are expressed in a clear and concise manner?

If you use this list, you can check that you have included everything you need to in your short story.

This will help you create a story that makes sense and is interesting for people to read. In addition, if you include all the items from the checklist, you will get an EXCELLENT writing score.

Type your story in the “LEAVE A REPLY” textbox and you will receive feedback directly to your email.

I will post your final story after you have received feedback.

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Writing Practice 2

Write a short story beginning with one of the sentences below:

Plan the content:

  • It was midnight when the phone rang.
  • Alex had been working hard all day and was looking forward to going home.
  • We had been driving for hours when we saw the sign for a small hotel and decided to stop.

1 Write what happened simply, in about 50 words.

2 Think about how you could improve your story by adding more details. For example, adjectives and adverbs.

3 Think about what tenses you need for each part of the story. For example, how to set the scene, and what significant events happened before the story starts.

Write your story in about 100 – 120 words in the box below.

Checklist:

  1. Title: Have you included a title that accurately reflects the content of your story?
  2. First line: Have you used the given first line from the instructions to begin your story?
  3. Exposition: Have you introduced the characters, setting, and plot of your story in a clear and concise manner?
  4. Action part: Have you included a sequence of events or actions that develop the conflict and engage the reader?
  5. Resolution: Have you provided a satisfactory conclusion to your story that ties up any loose ends and provides a resolution to the conflict?
  6. Adjectives and Adverbs: Have you used descriptive words (adjectives) and words that describe actions (adverbs) to create vivid imagery and convey your story’s mood and tone?
  7. Narrative tenses: Have you used the appropriate narrative tenses (simple past, past continuous, past perfect, past perfect continuous) to tell your story consistently and clearly?
  8. Clear ideas: Have you organized your story in a logical and coherent manner, ensuring that your ideas are expressed in a clear and concise manner?

If you use this list, you can check that you have included everything you need to in your short story.

This will help you create a story that makes sense and is interesting for people to read. In addition, if you include all the items from the checklist, you will get an EXCELLENT writing score.

Type your story in the “LEAVE A REPLY” textbox and you will receive feedback directly to your email.

I will post your final story after you have received feedback.

19 thoughts on “How to Write a Short Story for the B1 Preliminary Test (PET)”

  1. Practice time

    title: What a terrible day

    Alex and I have been working hard all day, looking forward to tomorrow’s holiday and going home to relax. It was finally time to get off work. My colleague Alex and I live in the same area, so we both drove back together. 

    We were halfway home when the phone rang in the middle of the night. It was our boss who called us and told us that we had to go back to work tomorrow morning for an emergency meeting. I had been driving for hours when we saw a sign for a small hotel and decided to stop. At that moment, I felt very tired and thought that I would have to go back to work tomorrow morning, so we decided to stay at this hotel for the day.

    At 6:00 in the morning, we left the hotel and went back to the company to hold an emergency meeting. In the end, the emergency meeting was not an emergency. Our boss was planning to propose marriage to his girlfriend and asked us to help him think of some ideas to help him complete his proposal. In the end, we spent the whole day off helping him with his plan.

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  2. It was midnight when the phone rang while I was sleeping. That was unexpectedly weird because I usually don’t get phone calls at midnight. I immediately picked up the phone. It was Alex. He invited me to go to a disco party the next day. I was surprised to hear him. I hadn’t seen him for a long time, so obviously I said yes, why not?
    When he saw me he didn’t look so happy. He was dressed so elegantly, he said “anyway, let’s go to the disco, my friends are waiting”. Four hours later Alex explained to me that he had a nice job, so he had been working hard all day and was looking forward to going home.
    Alex and I got in his car. He didn’t drive well, maybe he was tired. Unfortunately we got lost. We had been driving for hours when we saw the sign for a small hotel, and we decided to stop. The next day I woke up and Alex wasn’t there, but his car was there. I send a message to his friends “where is Alex?”. They asked me if I had gotten crazy because the night before I had said that my name was Alex. I finally asked myself “Am I getting crazy? I need my medicine?”

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  3. A bad call

    It was midnight when the phone rang suddenly. I got up in a hurry and answered the phone. Who was calling at midnight? I had been sleeping for hours. It was my sister-in-law, Xunyunyun. “I want to divorce your brother,” she cried on the phone with a tearful and emotional voice. I was surprised.

    She and my brother Chen Yong had been married for ten years. They had a lovely girl Junjie. I knew there was always some quarrel in their lives. But It was at midnight. Did she call the following day? How important thing was!. “Why do you want to divorce?”, I asked patiently. “We have no money to pay the bill for Junjie’s after-school class. Chen Yong didn’t agree.” She was still crying. So I said, “I see, I see. How much money do you need?”. She answered, “2000 yuan, thank you, my sister”. “I will transfer the money tomorrow morning”, I said. Then she stopped crying immediately.

    I hung up the phone and went back to sleep. But I wasn’t sleepy at all.

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  4. Without warning

    We had been driving for hours when we saw the sign for a small hotel and decided to stop. It was midnight and it was raining, the storm made it impossible to see the way. When the car stopped, we went to the hotel. It was a warm place, so we decided to stay for that night.

    My sister went to the lobby while I was trying to check in. Suddenly a man appeared behind the reception. He was really handsome and right away I fell in love with him. It was love at first sight. Immediately we started to talk, I wanted to know all about him. His name was Joseph and he was the owner of the little hotel.

    That night was magic. People say that love knocks on your door without warning, and it’s true.

    After that night we started a relationship and finally, after two years of being together, we will get married next month.

    Liked by 2 people

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  5. The worst moment of my life
    It was eleven o’clock when the phone rang. It was an old man telling me that he kidnapped my little daughter. Two days before, my daughter asked permission to go to the cinema with her friend, Lindsey. I said “Yes, you can go but be careful.” After that, the phone rang and I was worried. “Who could call me at this time?”, I said. It was a stranger who wanted money to release my daughter. I was shocked. Immediately, I called the police. The police checked the cameras outside my house carefully and saw the man that had kidnapped my daughter.
    In the end, the police followed the man and caught him. We found my daughter in an old basement. We hugged each other tightly. We cried….

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  6. A wonderful surprise!

    We had been driving for hours when we saw the sign for a small hotel and decided to stop. It had already gotten dark, the road was lonely and it was the first time we had passed through it.

    Immediately, we could see the sign of a small hotel, and my husband said to me “It is necessary to stop because I have driven for many hours. I feel tired and it is very dark” I agreed with him. There was still a long way to go to our destination.

    So we stopped, approached the hotel reception, and checked in. Suddenly when I looked at the front door I could see my favorite Latin American Singer “Fonseca” I said “What incredible this city is because I have traveled from far away and I could find my favorite singer here. ¡Wow! I can’t believe it” After that, I went to take a photo with him. It was an unforgettable moment.

    Ten minutes later, we met again in the hotel restaurant and he sang two songs for us. I was really happy and gratefully.

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  7. The hungry father.

    It was eleven o’clock at night when the phone rang. I had been traveling for a long time. when I arrived at the airport. While I was there I waited for taking a taxi, I got a phone call from my mom. Apparently, she still was scared. She heard a noise on the first floor. I was totally shocked when I heard this. I suppose we should call the police. In fact, my mom had already called them I told her that I would arrive as soon as possible.

    My mother had told me that my father wasn’t in the bedroom. She assumed that he had come down to see what it’d happened but she wasn’t sure. A few minutes later, the police officer arrived. When the police officer entered the house, luckily they caught my father trying to take a cookie out of the cookie jar. At that moment everyone laughed out loud.

    When I arrived at home the police officer had gone and my parents were waiting for me. I was very scared. I could feel that they were gradually looking at me with shameful eyes because it was a funny moment. When it was all over everyone in the house were eating cookies.

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  8. A big mess

    It was midnight when the phone rang. Normally, I set up not to receive phone calls from 10 pm until 6 am, but that day the setup didn’t work. When I answered the phone, the woman told me that I parked my car in the wrong parking spot.

    I didn’t comprehend her voice very well, so I decided to call my apartment’s concierge to ask him what was happening. And he told me that woman was making a big mess, because my car was parked the correct place.
    I got the elevator and I arrived on the garage floor. She was speaking very fast and she looked like she was “drunk”. I explained to her that was my parking spot and she was starting cried. She told me that she went to a big party and she drank a lot of beer and wine. In the end, she had made a big trouble for herself and she apologized to me.
    In the end, she moved her car to the correct place, stopped to cry and went to her apartment. Fortunately, that phone call was not very serious, but I woke up when I was dreaming a fantastic dream story

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  10. Wrong schedule

    Once when I was working in a tourist enterprise as a coordinator, I saw my schedule. That day, I was supposed to have dinner with my coworker to do a plan for the next month at 20:00 in a fancy restaurant. When I finished my work I went home, I wore my elegant suit. Then I took a taxi because there is no space to park a car in the downtown area.

    When I arrived at the restaurant, the hostess, Mrs. Giles told me: “I apologize Mr. Calle, but today we don’t have a reservation in your name” I told her that was weird because every month we have a business meeting and that day there was not an exception. I was really annoyed and furious. I thought “How is it possible? This had never happened before”. At that moment the kind waitress suddenly told me, “I am really sorry for you, but your meeting is usually on the first Friday of the month and today is Tuesday”.
    In the end, that situation was really embarrassing. A day later I had to write a letter apologizing for my behavior. I also sent a big tip to the waitress. That mistake cost me an arm and a leg.

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  11. Is changing carreers the wrong choice?

    Before I became a programmer, I was an airline staff. During that time when I worked at the airline company, the COVID happened and many colleagues changed there jobs. Afterward,I came to the conclusion that I didn’t want to work at the airline company, so I changed careers too.

    When I started the new job,I was excited and feeling well. I didn’t need to have contact with my former boss.
    I also didn’t care about my clients. I just needed to finish my coding and get off work. It was easier than my former job.

    But after few months, I thought it was bored. I think this job was not suitable for me. In fact I can’t believe I tried to ask my former company’s colleague to let me back.

    Eventually, I doubt myself why I quit my former job. This doesn’t make sense.

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