How do I write a compelling descriptive essay question for English Language paper 1

Often students find the narrative choice in the 40 Mark question to be preferable. However it is possible that the exam will feature a choice between 2 descriptive questions, (therefore omitting a narrative option) whereby the student must creatively write from a image provided in the exam. The solution is to explore personification for these questions as a way of almost 'translating' the skills used in the narrative tasks to the descriptive tasks. For example, one question I explored with a student featured quite a plain scene: a park bench by a streetlight all covered with snow. The scarcity of the picture ensured that a step by step description of the scene, as complex and beautiful as we could make it, would result in too short an essay. Therefore we included a narrative element to the descriptive task using personification and anthropomorphism. We painted a picture of a battle between the ground trying to see the light from above and the relentless snow smothering it's view. This somewhat plain scene suddenly gained a sense of drama and narrative through description. It is important for top marks in this essay question to include a wide variety of descriptive techniques for which a strong use of personification helps to naturally ensure; it makes for a more complex an imaginative pice of writing.