A Story on a Wish That Came True: Model Answer and Marking Notes
Quick answer: An original 180-word exam story about a wish that came true, set on a snowy birthday in Dublin, with notes on how it earns content, organisation and expression marks.
A wish-that-came-true story earns marks when the wish is small and specific, when it comes true in a way the character did not expect, and when the coming-true reveals what the character actually wanted. No genies, no lottery tickets; boards and examiners both prefer a wish a real child could make. The model below is about 180 words and gives a girl in Dublin the snow she has wished for on every birthday since she was six.
The weak version of this story is a wish granted exactly as asked, followed by happiness. Nothing is learnt and nothing turns. The strong version grants the wish sideways.
The task
Typical wording: 'Write a story in 150 to 200 words with the title A Wish That Came True.' Or an outline: 'a long-held wish ... the day it seems impossible ... an unexpected turn ... the wish granted differently.' Decide what the character really wants beneath the stated wish; that gap is the story.
Model answer
Snow in March. Every year on the morning of her birthday Niamh looked out of the window over the Dublin rooftops and every year it was raining. She had wished for snow on her ninth birthday, her tenth and her eleventh. Her brother Cian had laughed each time, and then gone and bought her something anyway.
This year Cian was in Galway at university and would not be home. Her mother made pancakes and tried to be two people. Niamh did not bother looking out of the window until nearly ten, when the light in the kitchen turned strange and white.
It was snowing. Not properly, not the way it did in films, but enough to sit on the wall and the bins and the roof of the neighbour's car. Niamh stood at the glass with her hand on it and found, to her surprise, that she wanted to cry.
Then the gate banged. Cian came up the path with snow in his hair and a badly wrapped parcel under his arm, having taken the six o'clock bus. Niamh went out without her coat. She had, she realised, never really been wishing for snow.
Why it earns marks
Against content, organisation and expression:
Three other ways to take the same topic
Each grants the wish sideways.
What writers can take from this
- Make the wish small and specific.
- Grant it sideways, not exactly as asked.
- Let the ending show what was really wanted.
- No genies, no lotteries, no magic; a real child's wish.
- Set up the true wish in paragraph one without naming it.
- End on an action, not on 'her wish had come true'.
Try it yourself
Write a 180-word story in which a character's wish comes true on the one day they are no longer in a position to enjoy it, and the story ends with what they do about that.
Questions
How long should 'A Wish That Came True' be in the exam?
Follow the paper: 100 to 120 words for CBSE Class 9, 150 to 200 for most school exams, 300 to 350 for ICSE compositions. Remove the pancakes paragraph to bring the model to about 120.
Can the wish story be in the first person?
Yes, and it suits the topic, since the gap between the stated wish and the real one is felt from inside. Keep the narrator from explaining the gap; let the last action show it.
Should a wish story have a moral?
Only if asked. A one-line moral that fits the model would be 'We rarely know what we are really wishing for.' Leave it out where the question does not require it.
By the Writory editorial team, reviewed by working writers. Updated September 2026.
Enter a Writory story contest
Enter the Writory Short Story Contest and have your own story read and scored out of 100. Entries close 25 November. That first entry makes you a Writorian.