Creative Writing Lessons That Feel Like Time Travel: How I Use Writing Boxes in the Classroom

If you’ve ever wanted to see your students light up over a writing task, or if you’ve spent a lesson watching them stare blankly at the page, you’ll understand why I made these.

I call them Creative Writing Boxes, but really they’re mini immersive mysteries. A collection of letters, diary entries, clippings, objects, and clues that students use to piece together a story, and then tell it in their own voice.

It’s creative writing that doesn’t start with “Write a story about…” Instead, it starts with: “What do you think happened here?”

Here’s how they work—and how you can use them in your own classroom.

So what exactly is a writing box?

It’s a literal box - well, a bag instead of a box full of interlinking prompts (or a downloadable set, if you’re outside the UK). With the physical version, you get printed documents (think letters, diary entries, newspaper clippings) and tactile extras to spark curiosity. Each box has a scent, too, because I’m extra, and I am a big believer that memory is multisensory. So Victoriana smells of lavender because it’s the Victorian scent of mourning, and Kindling smells of cinnamon because it’s warm, earthy, and a little bit unsettling.

Each box is flexible, and I truly believe there are a million stories in each box because prompts can be used however you want:

They’re a bit like true crime games, but with no single solution. Just enough to make your students ask: What if…? Why…? How…?

Why I Created Them

It all actually started with a single lesson. An old favourite of mine called the shoe lesson (which you can read about here).

I used to bring in a selection of old, well-worn shoes and ask students to figure out who they belonged to. That one object would lead to stories, arguments, twists, and full-blown character arcs.

I decided to write a blog,g post about that lesson, and while I was outlining it, I started thinking: How do I bottle that feeling and let other people experience it?

That’s how the idea for the writing boxes began.

They Don’t Just Work for the “Creative Students”

And that’s the beauty of them.

They tap into something we all naturally do: try to make sense of things.

Some students love the writing side straight away. Others are drawn in by the mystery, the feeling that they’re uncovering something important. It’s creative writing, but it’s also deduction, analysis, empathy, worldbuilding… all the things we say we want in English lessons.

The boxes don’t feel like tasks. They feel like secrets waiting to be found. They feel like mysteries waiting to be solved. They feel like a puzzle to piece together.

A Million Different Stories, and A Million Different Lessons

There’s no single way to use each box, and that’s part of the point. Some teachers run full writing units around the boxes, while others use them as one-off mystery lessons or creative warm-ups.

Here’s what’s worked best for me in the classroom:

◆ You can start with group investigations - give students a full set of documents and let them piece the story together themselves. They’ll annotate, create timelines, ask questions, and present their theories. No one’s looking for “the right answer”, just curiosity, evidence, and imagination.

◆ You can use them as solo writing prompts - I often keep the documents or cards in their bag and let students draw one at random. It’s perfect for quick-fire warmups, extension tasks, or if you want to build stamina with regular creative writing practice.

◆ Or you can go big by using the box as the basis for a class novel project, a podcast script, a courtroom roleplay, or a genre study for creative writing units.

I’ve had students write TV scenes, invent missing diary entries, design crime boards, or even I use them with a few different classes so they could explore what each other had come up with.

One group once wrote a memorial poem from the perspective of a forgotten character, and then another group wrote a eulogy to that same character, accidentally contradicting the first group’s timeline. It was perfect. They debated their reasoning for their choices like lawyers, presenting analysis of the prompts as evidence.

The flexibility is the power. Every box invites students to take ownership of the story, the same way real writers do.

The Victoriana Collection

Victoriana was the very first collection I created.

Set in late 19th-century London, the box includes séance invitations, missing persons reports, love letters gone cold, asylum records, theatre tickets, train stubs, newspaper clippings, and eerie marginalia. It smells faintly of lavender, the Victorian scent of mourning, which sets the tone before you even open the first document.

It’s the kind of story that unravels slowly. One document hints at a séance gone wrong. Another reveals a child vanished in the night. A diary entry mentions fog. A shopping list that includes chloral hydrate. And then there’s the eerie notes about the river.

There’s no single answer, no defined timeline. That’s deliberate. I tested this box with lots of people - students, friends, established writers, and no two interpretations were the same. One person wrote a gothic horror piece. Another reimagined it as a tragic love story. And someone else told me they thought the real twist was that none of it was supernatural at all.

That’s what I love about it: it’s layered enough to become whatever your students want it to be.

I’d recommend Victoriana for ages 13 and up, but I’ve also seen it used with older students exploring Gothic conventions and narrative structure, and it was a roaring success with my grown-up testers, too. It’s perfect for writers who want to build atmosphere, experiment with voice, or thread mystery across multiple perspectives.

If your class enjoys The Woman in Black, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, or anything with mist, madness, or mirrors, this one hits every note.

◆ Get your physical copy of The Victoriana Collection here.

◆ Get your digital download version of The Victoriana Collection here.

The Kindling Collection

If I had to choose a favourite, this would be it.

The Kindling Collection is set in a small village called Ashwick, seemingly quaint, but full of secrets. Every year, the townspeople hold the Longlight Festival, a midsummer celebration that feels somewhere between The Lottery and The Wicker Man. At first glance, it’s all bunting and bake sales. But the fire always remembers. And someone is always chosen.

The documents in this box span centuries: old letters, drawings, council meeting notes, handwritten will excerpts, a Reddit post, even a child’s history project about the plague. The layering of voices across time gives it a sense of weight, like the ritual has been happening forever, and only now are we starting to notice.

The beauty of Kindling is that it doesn’t steer you toward one specific genre. A group of students once decided it was an alien abduction cover-up. One of my writer friends turned it crime story about a murderous member of the Women's Institute. The village green became a crime scene in one story, and a place of quiet sacrifice in another. That’s the magic, it adapts to the writer.

This one works beautifully with teens and adults alike. It’s ideal for your English classes, but honestly, anyone who loves folklore, unsettling traditions, or exploring small-town dynamics will get swept up. If your students (or you) love shows like The Burning Girls, or if you’ve ever wanted to write something set in a place where no one asks questions after dark, this one is for you.

It’s warm cinnamon-scented, eerily timeless, and full of moments that will make your skin prickle.

No two stories come out the same, and that’s exactly the point.

◆ Get your physical copy of The Kindling Collection here.

◆ Get your digital download version of The Kindling Collection here.

The Ashridge Collection

Ashridge is the most lightweight of the three, by design.

It’s a free, printable collection I put together with tired teachers in mind, especially those crawling toward the end of a long school year. That said, it works for anyone of any age who enjoys a good mystery and a little gothic atmosphere.

Set in a fictional boarding school tucked away in the English countryside, the documents include fire reports, school notices, letters home, detention slips, diary fragments, and a curious pattern of disappearances. One student sees shadows in the mirror. Another woke to fire alarms at exactly 2:04 a.m. And somewhere in the background, something keeps wandering the corridors.

This one is more contained than Victoriana or Kindling, but it still has that layered, open-ended feel. There’s no correct interpretation, just lots of clues to stitch together. It works well as a one-off mystery lesson, a creative writing warm-up, or a genre study in gothic or horror writing. I’ve seen students use it to spark poetry, podcasts, monologues, and even a mock documentary.

You don’t need weeks of planning. You just print it out, hand it over, and let the questions and writing begin.

◆ Download The Ashridge Collection for free here.

Final Thoughts

What I love most about creative writing boxes is that there’s no single way to use them. They’re immersive, flexible, and designed to meet you where you are, whether you’ve got a perfectly planned unit or just ten minutes left on a Friday afternoon.

They work in classrooms, workshops, libraries, and bedrooms. They work for GCSE students, university writers, and grown-ups who haven’t written creatively in years. Because deep down, most of us still love piecing things together. Still feel a flicker of curiosity when I find an old letter, a torn photo, or a name scratched out on a page.

These boxes are a way back into that feeling.

Whether you're looking to inject energy into your lessons or want to explore new story worlds yourself, there's a box for that, and it doesn’t have to feel like extra work.