Young writers often struggle with generating ideas for writing stories. Even when they have a prompt, sometimes they get stuck trying to put their thoughts together. This is one of the reasons planning takes a long time or doesn’t get done at all. When a young writer is faced with a narrative prompt, one of two things generally happens. Either the prompt is taken literally and the young writer tries to fit all their ideas within reality, or the prompt is seen as an opportunity to let imagination run wild. Neither one of these situations gets the young writer to what they need – a manageable story that’s creative and interesting, yet makes sense to readers.
So how do we allow for innovation while keeping logic and wisdom in the equation? By teaching young writers about genre, types of stories, and types of conflict.
When these three groups intersect, there’s a sweet-spot that allows for great ideas to come forward. That’s because each of these three groups creates a point of focus while simultaneously boosting memory and imagination. So, young writers have the benefit of a process which jogs their memory, stimulates their imagination, and focuses their thinking to reign in the wild ideas.
That is a great place to start if your young writer is having challenges coming up with ideas. Think about it this way, if a young writer knew a handful of genres, a few types of stories, and the six basic types of conflict, they could easily make a selection to apply to any narrative writing task.
Try this activity with your young writer. Go through the different types of stories, genre, and conflict, then attempt the prompts below.
1. You went to buy bread and milk at the shop. On your way back, you accidentally dropped the milk. Write a story about the experience.
2. You are doing chores at home. Write a story about your experience.
These prompts were purposely selected because they don’t immediately scream “exciting story”. Encourage your young writer to select a genre, a type of story, and a type of conflict as a starting point. Then get them to plot the story, including exposition, details of the conflict, setting, characters, climax, and resolution.
