First Steps in Creative Writing: Turning Your Ideas into Stories
Every single book you have ever read — even the silliest one about a dinosaur who loses his shoe — started as just one small idea in someone's head. Creative writing is the magic of taking a tiny idea, like 'what if my dog could talk?', and turning it into a whole story with characters, a problem, and an ending.
What You'll Learn
- What the parts of a story are (character, setting, problem, ending) - Where writers get their ideas - How to turn one idea into a beginning, middle, and end - How to use describing words to make a story exciting
The Four Parts Every Story Needs
Every story, from a two-page picture book to a giant novel, needs four things: a character (who the story is about), a setting (where and when it happens), a problem (something the character needs to solve or wants very badly), and an ending (how the problem gets solved). If you have all four, you already have a story!
Where Do Ideas Come From?
Writers get ideas from everywhere: a strange dream, a question like 'what if animals could vote?', a memory of a fun day, or even something silly that happened at lunch. The trick is asking 'what if?' about ordinary things — what if your backpack was actually a secret door? What if your baby sister was really a tiny superhero?
Look around your room right now. Pick one object and ask 'what if it could talk, or fly, or was actually magic?' That question is the seed of a whole story.
Which of these is NOT one of the four parts every story needs?
What is a good way for a writer to come up with a new story idea?
Write Your Own Tiny Story
Pick one object in your room and ask 'what if...?' Then write or tell 3-4 sentences that include a character, a setting, a problem, and an ending. Deliverable: your tiny story, 3-4 sentences long, with all four story parts.
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