Reach for the Unique! Unusual places and situations for children’s story characters.
An important part of writing for children is brainstorming. This is when your writer’s notebook comes in handy. You could have one page that lists nothing but strange places for your character to be at. For example, on a deserted island, at the top of a tower, or in a refugee camp.
“Holiday of Life” by Yemelianava Alyona
Painted at age 13 (s)
By placing your child-character in a setting one usually doesn’t associate with children of your culture, your muse can develop unique ideas and actions for your story character. This entices your reader to learn more because we all love to read about the unusual aspects of life – those we haven’t ourselves experienced.
Brainstorm to choose unusual settings for your story
Here’s a list of twenty unusual settings for a children’s story. Feel free to use any of these, or make your own list:
| In a submarine In a cave or gold mine On a rollercoaster Lost in a labrynth At the pyramids On top of a mountain Inside a book or magazine On another planet In an ice cream truck In a canoe or rowboat |
In a factory At a photography class In a restaurant kitchen In a hollow tree In a hot air balloon On the Golden Gate Bridge At a soup kitchen for the homeless At an animal testing facility Under a rock with a frog In a flood or forest fire |
Brainstorm to find an unusual situation for your children’s story
Now that you’ve comfortably located your child character in a very strange place, it is time to give him or her a difficult and unusual situation to resolve. Often, the location will suggest a situation.
For example, a flood will make your child scramble for safety. But what if you threw in a few extra challenges?
How about if it is Mom’s birthday? What happens if a special gift, which your character saved for six months to buy, gets drenched, or it floats away in a flood? What will your protagonist do to show Mom how much she is loved?
Or, on top of a mountain, what is the child doing there? Is he or she lost in the woods, having climbed the mountain to get a better view of possible cities nearby to head for? Or is he or she part of a mountain climbing expedition? Is this the youngest person ever to have climbed Mount Everest?
How can your story become more complicated? Perhaps an adult has a serious accident and needs medical help. Or our character comes upon a baby deer with a broken leg. Or the mountain top is already occupied by a monster. Or there’s an old forest fire lookout station with a mountain man living in it, who hasn’t seen civilization in thirty years.
All these ideas take children out of their bedroom, their family home, their school rooms, and the neighborhood park. They make children confront situations they’ve never expected to be in. They tell children that although these things never happened to them, they could happen, and we humans are often called upon to do the unexpected, to stretch our imaginations, and to head in new directions.
Unusual settings and situations for children’s stories will surprise and please agents and editors. They love to see new and different ideas – stories that haven’t been done by anyone else because they are so unusual.
Don’t be afraid to write something totally weird and wacky. In the world of writing stories for children, weird and wacky ideas are good.
Meet the Author
Linda Jo Martin has been writing for a long time. She loves her office, which at times is called a ‘sanctuary’ meaning a safe cozy place where she feels happy and productive. Linda doesn’t own a car right now but she loves to travel, so she bought a nice bicycle. When she’s not writing children’s stories or novels, she sometimes writes prayers instead. Life makes her very happy and she hopes everyone else loves living too.
Great article! It gave me ideas for instructions for the story telling cards I recently created. I appreciate your connection of incorporating situations to help kids work through issues.
Hi Cece, I would love to know more about the storytelling cards. I’m looking at your website page with the videos. Good idea! Thanks for commenting!
Writing children’s fiction is one of my dreams. Your article on taking an ordinary child and putting them into an out of the ordinary situation as a fiction prompt gives me all kinds of ideas.
PS – Thanks for the SF Bay area situations, that is my current home.
Rose, thanks for the comment. Writing children’s fiction is easier than it looks. Just get started, and let your imagination take you the rest of the way. It is amazing to see where you can go. …Oh, and San Francisco? I was born in Oakland, raised in the East Bay, and lived in SF during my young adult years, so it is in my blood. I hope I’ll go back one of these days. I haven’t been “home” since 2012.
With help like this, maybe even I could try writing fiction, if my life ever settles down enough.
It isn’t as hard as it might seem. Just develop a character and a premise, and let your imagination do cartwheels until it is done. Quite often this leads to a magically concocted ending that will surprise everyone including the writer.
Great ideas, thanks Linda.
Hi Olivia! I hope you will write some stories for your grandchildren.