Ideas for Making Up Stories

Activity #1: The Round-Robin Story

Have you ever made a story with a group of people? It’s great fun, especially in a family. Here are some suggestions listed in order of increasing difficulty.

• I start — you finish. The adult starts telling the story, brings it to an exciting part, then passes it on to a child. It can move back and forth between parent and child, or circle around a table to all members of the family. For instance, the story could start: “A boy went into a dark cave. He heard a noise, so he pulled out a flashlight and saw …” Make it nice and moody or exciting before handing it off.

• Fortunately / unfortunately. Here, the story is aided by a bag of props. The first person starts telling the story, bringing it to a cliffhanger. Then the second person takes the bag of props and says, “… but fortunately …” and pulls out an object, then finds a way for the hero to save herself using that object. Then just as it looks like everything is fine in the story, Person #3 says “… but unfortunately …” and takes something from the bag, something that will cause a problem for the hero. It keeps going until there are no more objects. What kind of objects should you use? Anything you have around the house that’s small and interesting: a ball, a rubber band, string, a spatula, a hat … anything will work if you have a good imagination.

• The family novel. This works best with school-age children. Once again, all family members will get involved, but here the goal is for each person to write a short chapter to keep the story going. The youngest writers may have to dictate their part. When we did this in our family, each of us got to add our own character in our chapter. The fun of this activity is seeing the story develop with more thought than if it were invented on the fly. I should mention, in our story I had to make one rule: no killing off other people’s characters. It’s a boy thing, I think.

Activity #2: Wacky Headlines

Materials needed: small slips of paper, pencils, paper bags or baskets

How to play:

Bag #1 On a piece of paper, each family member writes an adjective. These words should be good describers — “enormous,” “slippery” or “bright blue” are more useful than “neat,” “nice” or “good.” Those slips go into paper bag or basket #1.

Bag #2 Then write a kind of person or animal, the quirkier the better. “Alligator,” “superhero” or “princess” are good examples. These go in bag #2.

Bag #3 gets action words (present tense works best). “Jumps,” “howls” or “grabs” would work.

Bag #4 gets nouns. Singular or plural. For example, “flowers,” “sheep” or “police cars.”

Now, without looking, pull one slip of paper out of each bag, and put them in a line, 1-4. Here was our first try:

You now have your wacky headline. You’ll brainstorm from those four words. In our case, I’m thinking there’s a dog thief who wants a pet hippo, and speeds into the zoo at night to take one. I’m betting he’s not quite so fast on the way out!

If you don’t like that one, or you’ve gone as far as you can, pick another one. We did, and this came out:

You may need to add a word to help it make sense. We changed “shrieked” to “shrieked at.” So why would a furry monster shriek at a baker? Maybe the name was not spelled right on the monster’s birthday cake!

For fun, here are our other combinations:

All of them have potential, except perhaps the last one. As big a fan as I am of classic westerns, I’m not seeing a whole plot around flipping sunglasses.

That’s how you do it. You can just make up a spoken tale, or take the time to write it down. Maybe your child will want to draw a picture once you’re done inventing your wacky story.

Activity #3: Invent a Hero

Most people assume that a writer starts a book thinking about plot. For many writers, that’s not true. They start with character. They get to know their hero inside out. I read the other day that author Emile Zola would even delve into the personalities of his characters’ parents before writing a word of plot.

Main characters are so important to a story because they are the ones the reader will connect with. And heroes in a story can be marvelous role models for kids — making moral choices, facing their fears, being kind to the unloved. A main character you create with your kids can be an excellent way to work through situations your child is dealing with.

Building a family-created story around a character is fun and easy.

Start with a picture of a person. Any interesting face in a photo will do. Funny animals are fine, too. You may find it easier to draw your own. Or have your child draw one. Don’t worry if you’re not an artist; a simple cartoon will be enough to get started.

For example, here are some drawn by members of my family:

Again, don’t worry about how well it’s drawn. In fact, as I’ve done this game with thousands of kids, I find that the best drawings are the odd drawings. Can you pick the one above drawn by my 3-year-old? It’s very simple, but I love the hair and the clown nose. That simple goofiness (don’t tell her I said that) makes it a fun one to work with.

If you’d like to start with something a little more polished, I’ve illustrated some you can use.*

To turn these into characters, ask a few questions about the person in the drawing.

• What is this character’s favorite thing to do?
• What makes him sad?
• What one thing does he want more than anything else?
• What is he afraid of?
• What does he think he’s good at?

Just as with the drawing, the odder the answer, the more interesting the character. When I do this process in schools, kids usually start with characters that like to watch TV or skateboard. We press on until we have ones that like to eat ice cream on the roof, who are afraid of their own shadows, or pigs that want to dance ballet. Remember to give your character flaws. That will make him more human and give him a chance to grow.

Once you have your character, send him on an adventure. Use one of the basic plots. Or just have him try to get his favorite thing, and give him a problem along the way.

Activity #4: Inventing an Imaginary World

Regular listeners to Adventures In Odyssey, Focus on the Family’s radio drama for kids, know how real an imaginary place can be. It’s hard to believe we can’t pile into the minivan and make Odyssey our next family vacation destination. (Well, actually, we can visit Whit’s End … )

For kids with active imaginations, inventing one’s own world is often the ultimate challenge. It’s the brass ring of creating stories. C.S. Lewis, in his autobiography Surprised by Joy, tells of how as a boy he created Animal-Land — a strange world of walking and talking animals. The hours he spent writing and illustrating stories about his world were the groundwork for his later Narnian series.

How to Get Started

Like C.S. Lewis did, make a map. I suggest making an island. Make it an odd shape. Here’s an example.

Now add some features. Give it some mountains or a volcano. Put in rivers, swamps or lakes. (By the way, this is a great way to give your kids a geography lesson without them knowing!) It could have forests, beaches, caves, villages. How about an old, deserted pirate town? Here’s what I’ve added:

Now decide who lives on the island. Maybe it’s a clan of long-lost Vikings. Or talking birds. Or two groups on each side that don’t get along with each other. This might help you give the land a name.

Finally, start your story by bringing to the island a main character or two. What would happen when two kids get shipwrecked there? Or a time-traveler shows up? Here’s what I think I’ll do with mine:

A boy has heard about the famed Well of Wishes, where any wish can come true. He and his faithful sidekick, a wise-cracking lizard (parrots are so overdone), set out to find it, following a map they get at a garage sale. (Love those bargains!) But there are so many troubles on the island.

The king — hence the tropical island castle, of course — won’t help him. Maybe he even imprisons him. But the boy escapes into the jungle. His lizard meets a long-lost cousin who tells them they need to seek the help of the wise man. (See hut.)

The wise man informs them the only way down off the lofty cliffs is to hitch a ride on the guardian of the well, the fearsome Sea Monster. (See monster.) Ah, but how will he befriend the monster? Hmmm. Haven’t quite worked that out yet. Can’t pull the old reptile relative twist again. Maybe this is a good place to bring in the … Cave of Secrets!

That’s my first attempt. Don’t stop with just one story! Many fantasy writers revisit their world over and over. Add other islands! Make your land the springboard for many hours of imaginative fun with your kids.

You know what? I think I’ll put up a big island shape on the wall of my studio and keep it up for the school year. I’m curious what my kids will come up with.

*(Note: Referrals to Web sites not produced by Focus on the Family are for informational purposes only and do not necessarily constitute an endorsement of the sites' content.)

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