About this activity
Ten story prompts, several of them openings or endings rather than topics: write a story that begins, the door had never been unlocked before; a backpack that got heavier every morning; a kid who could hear one minute into the future; a story that ends, and nobody ever mentioned it again; a town where it never stopped raining. Each supplies a hook and leaves the structure to the student.
How to use it in a session
Ask for the problem before any writing starts. These prompts supply an intriguing situation and no complication, and a student who begins without one produces description. The ending prompt — and nobody ever mentioned it again — is the most demanding, since the whole story has to justify that last line, and it is the best item on the board for a student who can already produce a complete narrative. Fifteen minutes covers one story planned and told.
What to listen for
Listen for a complete episode rather than an interesting premise. Students at this level produce vivid openings and unresolved endings, and the resolution is the element to insist on. Watch whether the character has an internal response — a story where things happen and nobody feels anything is a sequence rather than a narrative.
Carrying it home
Story prompts work aloud in a car. Giving an opening line and taking turns adding sentences is a game rather than homework, and it builds the same structure.
Questions
- What grades is this for?
- Fourth through eighth, for students who can already produce a complete narrative and need to generate one from nothing.
- Do I need an account?
- No, all ten prompts play free.
- Should the story be spoken or written?
- Spoken first for most students. Writing adds a mechanical load that can hide what the narrative structure actually looks like, and a story told aloud can be written afterwards.