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Every child has a story to tell. The trick is giving them a simple shape to hang it on, then stepping back. Here are some ideas that work with nothing more than paper and a pencil.

Start with a character

Ask: who is your story about? An animal, a dragon, a child, a pebble? Give them a name, one thing they love and one thing they're worried about. Poppy loves the sky and worries about not being fast enough, and that's enough for a whole story.

Give them a problem

Stories happen when something goes wrong. A lost star, a seed that won't grow, a river too wide to cross. Ask: what goes wrong for your character?

Beginning, middle, end

Fold a piece of paper into three. In the first part, draw or write who and where. In the middle, the problem. In the last part, how it gets solved and how everyone feels. Younger children can draw all three and tell you the words.

Read good examples

The stories in the Dream Machine follow exactly this shape, and the read-aloud voice lets children hear how a story flows. After reading one, ask: who was it about, what went wrong, and how was it fixed?

Celebrate the finished story

Read it aloud together, make a cover, or turn it into a little book in our Creation Kit. Finishing a story matters more than spelling every word right.

For a ready-made planner, print the free Design Your Own Dragon worksheet: invent a dragon, then plan a story about a day with it.