Literature For Kids

How to Generate Story Ideas

Linda Jo Martin — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 17:13:50 +0000

Here’s a quick way to generate story ideas. Every sentence has a noun and a verb, so these can be basic building blocks for generating story ideas.

1. Start by writing a list of ten nouns. Next write a list of ten verbs.

Nouns:
cup
clock
element
blanket
juniper
fireplace
candy cane
headphones
guitar
child

Verbs:
run
mow
chop
coddle
generate
drink
carry
start
close
lie

I’m not going to do the entire exercise here, but will give three examples using the words above, and carry them through the entire exercise.

2. Combine each noun with a verb, and write a sentence using them. You should end up with ten sentences.

Example One:
element - generate
Igniting a periodic table of elements, Harvey generated a huge blaze that destroyed the local high school chemistry lab. (This could be a good start for a young adult novel. I see lots of conflict opportunities in finding a resolution for this event. On the downside, it might be hard to get the readers to like your main character if he’s an arsonist.)

Example Two:
candy cane - start
The Christmas season started out good, with a box of candy canes on the kitchen table. (Seasonal stories are always popular. This first line doesn’t offer much information, however. It could be the lead-in for a picture book or for a middle grade novel.)

Example Three:
juniper - mow
Andy mowed the lawn around the juniper bush. (This sounds to me like a picture book idea.)

3. Next, create a thematic statement for a story dealing with each of the above sentences.

Example One: When you do something you shouldn’t, you live to regret it.

Example Two: Expect the unexpected when you least expect it.

Example Three: When you make your home look nice, people think better of you.

4. Give each of your story ideas a middle and an ending.

Example One: After spending six months in juvenile hall, Harvey is expelled from school. He never commits another crime and when he becomes an adult he pays his parents back for the damages they were forced to pay.

Example Two: Santa arrives, waking Tom up, bringing round trip tickets for two to the North Pole on New Year’s Day. He is instructed not to let anyone else see the tickets, or they won’t work. Tom goes on the trip with his sister, Elizabeth. They arrive home safely after helping Santa develop toy ideas for the next year. Their parents won’t believe their story about where they’ve been.

Example Three: Andy is busy cleaning up the front yard, mowing the lawn, etc. People keep coming by and telling him how much they like what he’s doing. Children stop and stare, wishing they could do the same thing. His mother is excited; his father is proud. A man offers him a landscaping job. The best thing of all - when he’s done he can look at his own work and feel proud that he spent the day doing something that made a difference.
. . .

Please don’t use my ideas… I may be using these myself! But go ahead and generate a few ideas of your own. Make a collection of them so when you want to sit down and write a story, you’ll have a variety of ideas to choose from.

. . .

Linda Jo Martin is a novelist living in Northern California. She is currently working on a young adult novel, and planning the fourth novel in her series of Antediluvian Tales. Find out more about Linda at her blog, Perspectives on Writing.

A New Children’s Literature Project

Linda Jo Martin — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 06:52:19 +0000

This blog will be a collaborative adventure for writers and illustrators of children’s literature. Here we can post short articles to help one another learn more about creating literature for children.

The blog will be open to all children’s writers and illustrators who want to contribute.

Writer’s Guidelines

Linda Jo Martin — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 06:48:19 +0000

To become a contributing writer for Literature For Kids, register here. When you’re done registering, send an email to linda - at - literature4kids.com to introduce yourself. This step is necessary to keep spammers away from our blog.

In your email, let me know where you heard about this project.

Please read carefully before submitting your articles:

1. This is a collaborative blogging project for writers and illustrators of children’s literature. You don’t need to be published to contribute an article, but you need to have an understanding of children’s literature and be able to share something of value on this topic.

2. You will be placing your articles in the blog yourself, after having your user registration approved.

3. The site administrator will read and approve your articles, or email you regarding edits.

4. Articles should be at least 500 words long.

5. At the bottom of each article you can mention your sites/blogs/books, etc., and link to them. Each article should have a brief ‘about the author’ section at the bottom.

Critique Groups

Linda Jo Martin — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 06:50:57 +0000

Literature For Kids will help you find and/or form a critique group. Each group will have no more than ten members. If you want to be part of a critique group, leave a message here with information about what types of children’s literature you write. As people are assigned to critique groups, their comments to this message will be deleted.

Critique groups will meet online using private phpBB message boards, provided here at the Literature For Kids website. There is no cost for this service.