Helping Your Child Write Their Own Stories

To write a story, you first have to decide on a subject! To help your budding writer figure out what to write about, you can suggest ideas for inspiration:

• The family pet
• Something funny that happened to them
• A problem they had to solve at school or at home
• A newspaper headline
• Etc.

Once your child has picked a subject, the next step is building a fictional world using what’s known as the actantial model. Ask them to consider the following questions:

• Who is the main character?
• What are their traits?
• Who are their enemies?
• Which character will help them overcome obstacles?
• What is the main character’s mission or quest (objective)?
• Etc.

Every story has a beginning, a middle, and an end. To help your child put their story together (by creating a narrative schema), ask them to answer the following questions:

• Where is the story set?
• In what historical period does it take place?
• What does the hero do at the beginning of the story?
• What problem does the hero encounter?
• What is the hero’s quest or objective?
• What strategies will they use to fulfill their quest?
• Which of these strategies will be successful?
• What will the hero do after fulfilling their quest?
• Etc.

How a story begins plays a big role in capturing the reader’s interest. To hook their future readers, your child needs to write a strong opening sentence. To help get their creative juices flowing, suggest putting a twist on a classic introduction. Here are some examples:

• “Once upon a time . . .” could become “Once upon three times . . .”
• “A long, long time ago . . .” could become “Not so very long ago . . .”
• “In a land far, far away . . .” could become “In a land with far and away the tallest trees you’ll ever see . . .”
• Etc.

A moral is a lesson, often based on a value, that the main character of a story learns. You can ask your child to include one at the end of their story. It’ll get them thinking about the types of behaviours they approve and disapprove of. For example, their story might illustrate one of the following:

• Lying has consequences
• It’s important to work hard
• Boys and girls should be treated equally
• Etc.

Little details are often all it takes to jazz up a story! To help your child give their writing some personality, you can suggest different ideas:

• Make the sentences rhyme
• Incorporate humour
• Use made-up words
• Give the characters unusual names
• Etc.

If you’ve tried all the tips above and your child is still struggling to find inspiration, don’t worry. There are other strategies you can suggest to help them overcome their writer’s block:

• Start the story with a randomly chosen sentence
• Rewrite the ending of your favourite story
• Make up a story based on an illustration in a book
• Cut out a few images from a magazine, place them in any order, and write a story about them
• Etc.

A story’s topic is certainly important, but perhaps even more important is how you tell it. To make their story come to life, your child should pay attention to things like intonation, character voices, and pauses. They can even try creating a particular storytelling ambiance:

• Read in the dark with a flashlight
• Set up a makeshift reading tent in the living room
• Cozy up under the kitchen table
• Read using a megaphone
• Etc.

You don’t have to be a wordsmith to encourage your child write their own stories. No matter your writing experience, you can use these tips to help them create stories they’re proud of.