On the last day, we had to catch a train in the evening, so the boat was supposed to pick us up in the morning, but the boat never came. It was hard to get a phone signal, but finally we heard the news: there was an old World War 2 mine in the harbor, and no boats could leave! What could we do? We loaded our stuff onto a kayak and swam almost a kilometer around the cliffs. A naked hippy paddled the kayak, which was piled high with our things and looked like it could sink at any minute. We made it to land, and after several hours of hitchhiking and walking, we caught our train. It was stressful at the time, but looking back now it makes a good story!

One weekend, I was going home to visit my parents. I said bye to my flat mates, and told them not to do anything to my room. “Don’t worry, we won’t. Have a good weekend,” they said. I knew they were going to do something, but I couldn’t believe what they actually did: they made my room into a jungle! I’m not kidding: there were flowers, plants, three whole trees, jungle animals made from paper, and a ‘sounds of the forest’ mix playing on my stereo. It took me three hours to clean up, and also I have hay fever—an allergy to pollen—so I was sneezing and blowing my nose the whole time. For my flat mates, that just made it funnier…

To reach Issyk-Kul lake, which was the end of my journey, I had to cross a mountain pass, almost 4,000m high. It was so hard, because the air is thin up there and I was carrying a very heavy pack. It seemed to take forever, but finally I got close to the top… and then a storm boiled over the ridge and landed right on my head. There was lightning all around me, even below me! The noise was unbelievable. I forgot how tired I was and ran down the slopes to get to safety. I stayed the night lower down and tried again the next day. I made it over the pass, but it was a very frightening experience.

•Make an opening sentence. Remember: who, when, where, what?

•Then, add 1-2 sentences giving more background details. Focus on the most important elements in your story.

•What about your story? What’s the goal? What do the people in your story want?

•Keep this simple. Just add one sentence to your story, setting a goal for you or the other people in your story.

•Think about your story. How can you add tension?

•One way is to add problems or difficulties: things that get between you and your goal.

•Another way is to use foreshadowing, like our story above.

•Finish your story. Remember that you need to do two things: resolve the tension, and explain whether or not you reached your goals.