What does a Story Mountain narrative example look like?

A Story Mountain narrative example moves through five stages in order: an Introduction that sets the scene and characters, a Build-up that raises tension, a Climax at the story's most dramatic point, a Resolution where the character responds to the problem, and an Ending that wraps things up. See the four full worked examples below, one for each NAPLAN year level.

How long should a Story Mountain narrative be for NAPLAN?

There's no fixed word count NAPLAN requires — students have 42 minutes to plan and write (Years 5, 7, 9, typed) or 40 minutes (Year 3, handwritten), so length naturally varies. A well-paced Story Mountain narrative spends more time on Build-up and Climax than on Introduction or Ending, since that's where the story's tension lives.

How does a Story Mountain narrative change between Year 3 and Year 9?

The five-stage shape can stay the same across year levels while sentence variety, description, and how directly the character's internal thoughts are shown develop. These independently authored examples illustrate one possible progression; Story Mountain is a teaching framework, not a NAPLAN-prescribed year-level standard.

Story Mountain Narrative Examples for NAPLAN Writing: Year 3, 5, 7 & 9

24 July 2026By NaplanWriting.com.au5 min read

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One Shape, Four Levels of Sophistication

Story Mountain (Introduction, Build-up, Climax, Resolution, Ending) can provide the same five-stage shape at every year level while descriptive detail, sentence variety, and how directly a character's feelings are shown develop. The independently authored examples below illustrate one possible progression across the NAPLAN writing year levels (3, 5, 7 and 9). Story Mountain is a classroom planning framework, not a NAPLAN-prescribed structure or year-level standard. All four examples use the same familiar prompt — a lost pet — so their writing choices are easy to compare side by side. For the full structure breakdown, see the Story Mountain method guide.

Year 3 Example

Prompt: Write a story about a lost pet.

Introduction: Mia's dog Buddy loved to play in the park after school.

Build-up: One afternoon, Buddy chased a squirrel and ran through a gap in the fence before Mia could stop him.

Climax: Mia searched everywhere and called his name, but the park was empty and it was starting to get dark.

Resolution: Then she heard barking near the old oak tree, and there was Buddy, stuck but safe behind a bush.

Ending: Mia hugged Buddy tight and promised to always check the fence gap before letting him off the lead.

In this Year 3 teaching example, each stage is a single clear sentence, the problem is simple (a missing dog), and the Ending states the lesson directly. These are illustrative choices, not official year-level requirements.

Year 5 Example

Prompt: Write a story about a lost pet.

Introduction: Every morning, Jordan's cat Whiskers waited by the window for him to leave for school, and every afternoon she was there when he came home.

Build-up: So when Jordan came home on Thursday and the window was empty, a cold feeling settled in his stomach — Whiskers never missed the window.

Climax: He searched the house, the garden, and the street, his shouts growing more desperate as the sky darkened and neighbours began switching on their porch lights.

Resolution: Just as he was about to give up, a faint meow led him to the shed, where Whiskers had been trapped since that morning, hungry but unharmed.

Ending: Jordan carried her inside, checked the shed door twice, and never forgot to double-check it again.

In this Year 5 teaching example, sentences are longer and more varied, the Climax builds tension across a whole afternoon rather than a moment, and physical detail ("cold feeling", "porch lights") does some of the emotional work instead of stating feelings directly.

Year 7 Example

Prompt: Write a story about a lost pet.

Introduction: Ava had raised Pepper from a scrawny rescue kitten into a confident, slightly arrogant cat who treated the neighbourhood like her personal kingdom.

Build-up: That confidence was usually reassuring — Pepper always came back — but three days without a single sighting had turned Ava's certainty into something closer to dread.

Climax: On the fourth day, a neighbour mentioned a cat matching Pepper's description trapped under a construction site two streets over, and Ava sprinted the whole way, imagining every possible outcome.

Resolution: She found Pepper thin, dusty, and furious, wedged behind a stack of pallets — more insulted by the indignity than injured by it.

Ending: Walking home with a cat draped grumpily over her shoulder, Ava realised she'd rather deal with Pepper's attitude every day than face another three days of silence.

In this Year 7 teaching example, the writer builds character through personality ("slightly arrogant") before the crisis, and the Ending reflects on what the character learned rather than simply stating an outcome — one technique for making a resolution feel earned.

Year 9 Example

Prompt: Write a story about a lost pet.

Introduction: Since his father moved out, the family's ageing greyhound Scout had become less a pet and more a fixed point Daniel could orient himself around — the one thing in the house that hadn't changed.

Build-up: So when Scout slipped his collar at the vet and bolted into traffic-heavy streets Daniel barely recognised in the dark, it felt less like losing a dog and more like the ground shifting again.

Climax: Three hours of increasingly frantic searching led him to a construction site where Scout stood frozen at the edge of an unfenced drop, too frightened to move in either direction.

Resolution: Daniel approached slowly, voice steady even though nothing else in him was, and Scout finally trusted the sound of it enough to step back onto solid ground.

Ending: Walking home in silence, leash wound tight around his hand, Daniel understood that some things you can't control — but you can still choose to show up for them.

In this Year 9 teaching example, the narrative uses the lost-pet premise to carry a deeper emotional thread (a family change), vocabulary is more precise ("orient himself"), and the Ending connects the concrete event to a broader reflection rather than closing the story on plot alone.

How These Examples Develop Across Year Levels

Comparing these four independently authored examples side by side, three writing choices develop while the five-stage teaching framework stays consistent:

Descriptive detail — from "the park was empty" (Year 3) to scene-setting that carries emotional weight (Year 9).
Climax pacing — from a single dramatic sentence to a build across an extended search that raises stakes gradually.
Ending sophistication — from stating a lesson directly to a reflective closing line that implies meaning without spelling it out.

Practise Your Own Story Mountain Narrative

The fastest way to internalise the pattern is to plan one narrative on a familiar prompt and get feedback on it. Try the Story Mountain method guide to plan a narrative stage by stage, or write a full response with our free NAPLAN writing prompts and receive AI-generated practice feedback based on our independently authored explanations of the publicly documented NAPLAN marking criteria. The feedback is not an official NAPLAN score, may not replicate official marking, and should be reviewed with a parent or teacher.

Related Guides

Story Mountain Method Guide — the full five-stage structure, explained
TEEL Paragraph Examples — the equivalent worked examples for persuasive writing
NAPLAN Marking Criteria — all 10 criteria explained
Home Practice Routine — how to fit short writing practice into a normal week

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