If I had to give just one piece of creative writing advice that works at almost any age and ability level, it would be this:

Vary your sentence lengths.

That's it. Not fancy vocabulary. No complicated techniques.

Just change the length of your sentences.

It sounds almost too simple, but it makes an enormous difference.

When children struggle in English, it’s rarely because they lack ideas.

More often, it’s because those ideas are out of balance.

Success in English depends on proportion. On knowing how much of something to include, where to place it and how to blend it properly.

Creative writing is, by nature, subjective. So how do examiners mark it in an objective way? How can something as personal and imaginative as storytelling be measured with scores and checklists? It’s a challenge that often leaves both parents and children asking: “What exactly are they looking for?” or “What can make my story stand out over someone else’s?”