SPM Narrative Essays for Continuous Writing

One of the components of the SPM 1119 English paper that will make or break your grade is the 50 mark’s worth continuous writing (CW). Though others might have different opinions, as far as I am concerned, writing a narrative essay – a story – is the way to go for CW.

Here is a sample of  an excellent story written by one of our Peer Guides of 2017, Syahirunnisa Izzah for our book Writer’s Recipe 2.0 :

Writer’s Recipe 2.0: Written by students for students

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

TRICK OR TREAT?

            “Hey! Wait for me!” I yelled.

            My long legs quickly sprang towards my two best friends in front of me. I thought that they were unable to hear me as they just walked away and left me behind. The costume that I picked tonight really tested my patience too. It was too tight for me. Unable to catch my breath as every single step was suffocating me, I finally stopped.

            “Hey…wait for me…,” I murmured.

            The next thing that happened made me ecstatic. My two friends who were walking in front of me now finally stopped. With that, I excitedly dashed towards them while holding an empty pumpkin basket.

            “Halloween, I’m coming!” I shrieked.

            Maybe you thought that this story would be a happy one, but I am sorry to disappoint you; it is not. I was a 15 year old orphan who lived with my grandmother. She was the only one at home to hear all of my problems. I loved her so much. Apart from that, I had two best buddies from school; Adam and Jack. We would always stick together since we were in primary school. Because all three of us we were the most impoverished students in the class, we were mostly ignored by the other students. I did not really care though as I was happy enough with my life. But I soon learned that happiness does not last forever.

            It was a chilly night. The moon had appeared out on the horizon and the sky was filled with stars. Adam and Jack looked stunning in their Halloween costumes; Adam in his Death Vader costume and Jack in his Captain America costume. Both of them looked splendid that night.

            “Hey! Nice costume there,” I said to them but they just ignored me as if I was talking to a wall. I thought that maybe they were angry with me as I was late. Regardless, the journey of our Halloween night had just started, so I tried to keep on smiling.

            “Finally… our first house!” said Jack excitedly while knocking on the house door. A couple of seconds later, the door was opened by an old man with a grey beard and moustache with a bowl of candies in his left arm.

            “Trick or treat!!!” We exclaimed together. Without hesitation, we put out our empty pumpkin basket.

            “Oh! Such marvellous costumes you got there,” said the kind old man while he gawked amusingly at our costumes. He filled a generous amount of candies into our baskets one by one. I was waiting eagerly for my turn, but as soon as he filled Adam and Jack’s pumpkin baskets, he closed the door.

            “Hey… what about me?” I whimpered pathetically.

Having had what they came for, Adam and Jack left for the next house. Just like before, I was left behind dumbfounded with the empty pumpkin basket. My heart sank but I’m sure my friends were just testing my patience so I was not going to give up easily. I sprang my legs towards Adam and Jack.

We continued our journey to the other houses around the neighbourhood. Suddenly, my head became heavy and it ached badly. I wanted to ask for my friends’ help but I did not want them to think I was making excuses. So, I made up my mind to bear with the pain and just continued trick or treating until we arrived at a familiar location.

            “Hey guys, it’s my house!”

            They froze for a few seconds and exchanged glances.

            “What’s wrong? Come in! My grandmother must be very excited to meet you guys,” I noticed that they were acting weirdly.

            “Should we really visit her?” said Jack.

            “I don’t know… We’ve not come to this house since then. I wonder if what people say is true. That’s she hasn’t been the same ever since Nick left us,” said the other.

“What?” I was too baffled to utter a sentence at first. “Left you? What are you guys talking about? I’m right here!” I exclaimed. I was having another headache again. Suddenly, all of the pieces of the puzzle started to come together. I began to remember everything.

            One bright sunny day, while I was cycling back home from school, I noticed a white van following me. I did not put any suspicion on it and just continued my journey. Suddenly, the van blocked my way and I was pulled into the van. I had been kidnapped.

            The kidnappers were wearing Halloween masks so I could not see their faces. I was frightened beyond words. They gave a call to my grandmother and demanded a large sum of ransom money. But we were poor people; there was no way my grandmother could afford to pay them. As a result, they brutally murdered me to sell my organs. The news of my tragic death from the police drove my grandmother to the brink of madness. The shock of losing her beloved grandchild was too much for the poor old woman to bear.

            Now I knew why Adam and Jack always ignored me. I could only see them but they could not see me. We live in different worlds now.

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

Like what you read?

Then you should know that there are 41 more stories where that came from; Writer’s Recipe 2.0 – a book written by students for students! These stories also come with a plot in note form so you can easily rewrite your own essay using the same plot.

On top of that, Writer’s Recipe 2.0 also features a few A scoring, GCEO 1 grade essays – the highest band one can get for CW – written by our school’s former Peer Guides for their SPM in 2016.

About Writer’s Recipe 2.0

Writer’s Recipe 2.0 is a continuation of the Writer’s recipe project that we began last year. It is the perfect reading material to prepare for your SPM examination.

How do I buy Writer’s Recipe 2.0

Check out the poster below for more information and if you’re interested in buying our book, drop us a line via whatsapp or sms using number at the bottom ! Alternatively, you may contact us on the English at SMKA Pahang FB page.

Here’s what the physical pages of the book looks like, in case you’re wondering (click to enlarge):

Introducing: Writer’s Recipe

How often do your average high school students get to play book writers?

Here at last, after months of toil and labour, we have finally succeeded in publishing the first edition of Writer’s Recipe. We hope this little endeavour gives these students a tantalising taste at the prospect of becoming actual writers and at the same time encourage everyone else to take up the challenge to WRITE.

What is Writer’s Recipe?

As the sub title of the book suggest, Writer’s Recipe is compilation of narrative essays by students of SMK Agama Pahang, or to be more precise, the (then) ten Form Five Peer Guides of  SMK Agama Pahang. This is a book written by students for students. As such, the contents of the book – the stories – are entirely the brainchild of the students themselves, with very minor tweaks and touches by their teacher (me!).

The stories in the book cover a wide spectrum of genres – tragedies, romance, science fiction, thriller, biographical and beyond.  Readers will surely find something that clicks with them among the 40 plus stories captured in the 200 pages of the A5 sized book.

Sample pages. Click to enlarge

How did Reader’s Recipe come to be?

Initially, the project began with an intensive continuous writing exercise for the Peer Guides, but these students showed exceptional talent and commitment that we feel compelled to share their effort with the rest of the school. And we decided to have the end product in the best possible fashion.

Why the name Writer’s Recipe?

Two reasons mainly:

• We want this book to help students improve their writing. Thus we have painstakingly included the plots to most of the stories in the book so readers can use it to practice writing on their own. Some of them, unfortunately,  do not, but we are looking address to this  in the subsequent prints, God-willing.

• The real reason really, is because the bulk of the content was written throughout the month of Ramadan between 5.00 to 6.30 pm and the author were no doubt thinking a lot about food, so much so that while deliberating over the title of this book, we had almost settled with Najma’s suggestion of Writer’s Food, only to be perfected by Aiman’s suggestion seconds afterwards. And thus we have the title we have now – Writer’s Recipe.

In true writer fashion, the authors will even receive royalties for every book sold

Should I buy Writer’s Recipe?

If you are a student of SMKAP, this is a no-brainer. Buy it! Writer’s Recipe is made first and foremost with you in mind.

If you’re not from SMKAP, we’d be more that honoured to have you purchase this very humble product and welcome any feedback on how we can further improve the quality of similar projects in the future.

Okay, so I want to buy Writer’s Recipe. How do I do so?

Students of SMKAP may buy them from the Peer Guides as of Monday August 1st. (note: as of this writing, over half of the 150 initial copies have been booked so be quick if you haven’t!) Alternatively, you can buy them from Mr Najib Azmi.

For everyone outside of SMKAP, if you happen to be reading this without knowing me (Najib Azmi) personally, you may order through the English Panel’s facebook page. Otherwise, you already know how to contact me directly. However, you may need to wait slightly longer in the event that we need to have reprints as priority will first be given to students of SMKAP

That’s almost everything you need to know about Writer’s Recipe. Now all that’s left is to have it in your hands and read it yourselves. Thank you for supporting!

Najib Azmi
SMK Agama Pahang