Ready, Steady, Write - Day 5

What if story starter

The ‘what if’ story starter

 in the previous exercise (Day 4) I asked you to write a What if list poem. If you haven’t done that you yet, you might want to do it now and then come back.

I bet that when you were writing your ‘what if’ poem, you came up with lots of ideas for stories. As you’re reading your list, look out for the ideas that start to paint pictures in your mind, the ones that you can imagine, the ones that intrigue you. Then take one of your favourite ideas and see if you can turn it into a story.

 If I were doing this, looking at my list, I think I’d choose to write about what would happen if kids were in charge and adults did what they were told. I’d ask myself some more questions before I started. Like, how would the world be different? Would kids stay up all night and make their parents go to bed early? What if they were in charge at school? What subjects would they study? Would they learn at all?

 Next, I’d think of a good beginning, one that would make the reader want to know more. Maybe, for this story, I’d start like this…………

 Emily had always been a good girl. She’d never been the sort to answer back at all. So, when she told her mum to ‘go to hell’ she expected there to be consequences. But not these kind of consequences. She didn’t expect her mum to literally go to hell. No-one had told her that the rules had changed. And no-one had given her a map to the underworld……

 Pick your favourite story idea and see if you can write a good beginning. Or steal mine if you like. I don’t mind.