This is a story I overheard in the gym this morning. For real. I have no idea if the story is true, but two men were discussing what sort of dog to get. One of them had a whippet. I’m calling him George.
I’m just giving you the bare bones of it. That means you can steal it, put the flesh on the bones, one metaphor and simile and a time, so to speak. You get my drift.
See what I did there? That’s three metaphors already.
Anyway, steal this story if you want it. It isn’t plagiarism.
The exam question might be a memorable event, or someone special to you, or a moment that change you, or whatever. Or there could be a picture stimulus – fine, if that image is not in the story, make it a painting on the wall.
Brains and the Magatron
George explains he has a whippet. Whippets are Egyptian in origin, because the pharaohs loved cats. The whippet is the only dog which behaves like a cat, and has fur like a cat. Yes, whippets have only one coat. They never shed their hair. (Because otherwise they would be bald, and you’d have to call them Snippets).
George bought the whippet for his wife who is allergic to dog hair. It sits on her lap, licking its paws, just like a cat. He calls the dog Brains, because she is so smart.
When the dog was young, George built her a cage, so Brains wouldn’t relieve herself all over the house when they were out. But, like a cat, Brains just climbed out of the cage, and emptied herself in the kitchen and the hall. George and his wife noticed too late. It was lucky they were both good at ice skating.
So, George built a lid on the cage, until she was housetrained.
Whippets are also athletes, so George looked after her outside, where she would sprint before breakfast. George fed her only with fresh meat, not the rubbish that comes in a tin. Each morning, Brains would have a dish of two chicken wings and some mince.
This is how she met her arch-nemesis, Magatron, the magpie. Magpies are smart. Smarter even than dogs.
Brains prefers chicken wings to mince. She always starts with a wing, lifting it off her plate and moving a few steps along the patio. She loves stripping the skin and the meat, and then the sound of the crunch as she tackles the bones.
Magatron watched this for a week, planning. One day he perched on a tree. Next day on the rooftop. The day after above the patio door. Then he pounced.
As soon as Brains settled with the first chicken wing, Megatron dived on the second one.
Brains heard her. She pounced, as only a whippet can, springing like a cat, but Megatron had planned this well, and six inches might as well have been six feet, because he was away and flapping nonchalantly to the tree.
Brains barked. She sprinted to the tree. But Megatron eyed from the branch, finished his meal and didn’t even toss down the bones.
And for seven years, the game has continued. Every morning, Brains now runs out into the garden. He barks his warning, sprints around the perimeter and waits of his food. George watches from inside, the kitchen window giving him a perfect view. He waits for a shadow to drop from the sky, and Brains sprints after it, barking at his nemesis.
Megatron has had chicks, and they’ve all learned to come to the garden, diving for a wing.
When he goes for a walk, pigeons, robins, finches, crows, you name the bird, Brains ignores them all. But there’s always a magpie swooping low, ready for Brains to chase them.
Well, at this point in the story, the first man asks how on earth they got on to talking about whippets. Ah, says George, it was because they were talking about dog hair. And that reminds him of another day they got home, and Brains had leapt out of her cage. They found her in the bathroom. Somehow, she had run a bath, just as she’d watched his wife do. But that wasn’t the strangest part. Brains was standing in the bath, the shaver in her teeth, shaving her legs…
How to Start
Don’t start the story where I did. That’s just an outline.
Start with the crisis – the magpie diving for the chicken wing.
Start with the problem – George and his wife skating on excrement and urine.
Start with whippets being the Pharaoh’s favourite – maybe Cleopatra bred them because she was allergic to dog hair
How to End
You could decide, if you are blood thirsty, to have Brains finally catch Megatron and dine on magpie wing.
Or, dead Megatron leaves behind a family of 6 magpies who take it in turns to steal his breakfast.
Or, George could look out of the kitchen on morning and find them sitting side by side, each plucking at a chicken wing.
Or in old age, Brains might die on the patio. And there’s Megatron, nudging her with his beak, trying to bring her back to life.
Or you can stick with the shaving story.
What to Describe
Well, that’s easy. You would just pick the moments you would like to zoom in on.
The skating.
Megatron’s concentration.
Brains’ senses as she becomes aware of Megatron’s flight and theft.
The chase.
All of these will make it easy to add detail, emotion, appropriate senses, etc.
I’ve written 20 more stories like these which you can steal. You can find them here.
Heartening story Mr Salles! Is it possible if you could mark a Q5 I’ve written? Thanks in advance!
I enjoyed this so much! My favourite post so far 😊
On the morning of my Paper 1 exam I went for a walk and encountered this huge guy looking for his dog which had run off. Of the several prosodic options available to somebody retrieving a hound, this burley dude favoured the two-tone falsetto.
The dog's name was Awesome. 😊
I laughed in the exam as I wrote Awesome into my Qu5 response.