10 Ingredients You Need To Write A Short Story With Your Kids.

1. Choose a time and place.  The best time is when everyone can be together and comfortable around the kitchen table or other favourite family gathering spot. Invite everyone to a fun game of, “Let’s Write a Story!”

2. Decide who will be the scribe? It’s important for the person writing to use the words contributed without editing, so everyone can hear ‘their’ voice. Spelling and grammar mistakes don’t matter.

3. Brainstorm the kind of story you are going to write. An adventure, a scary story, or a fantasy in a strange and far off land.

4. Choose where and when the story will take place. Somewhere fictional or real, country, city, another planet; in the past, present or future? Younger ones could draw it.

5. Decide on the characters. Who is going to be the main person in the story? (person, animal, object.) What’s their name, what do they look like, do they have family or friends, how do they behave?

6. Figure out the plot. (Beginning) Does your character in the story want something or have to solve something?

7. Brainstorm the obstacles that get in the way.  (Middle) What is going to happen first, then, next, and finally?

8. Decide how or if the main character will ‘win’ or ‘lose.’ (End) How is the problem solved?

9. Use fabulous words. What words will make the story descriptive, create tension, and set the pace? What’s a good story opener? What is some great dialogue? What are some great last words?

10. Write the story. (Paper or computer). When it’s done you can fold the pages or staple them together to make a book for your family library.