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Writing Creative Fiction for Children | |||||||||||||||||||
| Generating Ideas for Fiction | |||||||||||||||||||
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Writing Creative Fiction for Children Generating Ideas Ideas are everywhere, you just need to know how to capture them. I use a number of different methods which work for me. 1 - BRAINSTORMING - think of a word, any word. Write it down, in the middle of a piece of paper. Draw lines from this word and add more words, to do with the first. eg - BALLOON can lead to party, blow up, decorations, burst. Then those words can lead to more.eg - PARTY can lead to dress, surprise, present. BLOW UP can lead to fireworks, guy fawkes, dynamite. BURST can lead to banks, dam, river. Once you have a page full of connected words, this should give you the basis for a story line. Juggle the words around, pick just a few of them and just let your imagination run. 2 - PICTURES - These can be photographs, newpaper/magizine pictures, cartoons, infact any image whatsoever. I study interesting pictures closely. And not just the foreground but the background too. Have a look through some old holiday snaps, there's bound to be something going on in the background of some pictures. For instance in the background of that family pic there could be someone standing arguing with their mum or dad,etc. What are they arguing about? Or maybe there's someone lurking around those background buildings? What's he/she up to? Cartoon strips can also give a good plot for a story. Try to elaborate on what is going on. These tell a story in only a few frames. Could that story be made into a lengthier plot? | ||||||||||||||||||
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3 - NEWSPAPER & MAGIZINE ARTICLES - Scan newspapers and mags for interesting articles. Could these articles be turned into a story? These could be humorous or serious. 4 - TV - Watch children's telly to get an idea of what is currently popular to children. What kind of characters. What kind of theme, etc. 5 - LIBRARIES & BOOKSHOPS - Read lots of children's books. This will give you an idea of style, theme, plot, characters and lengths of stories. This is even easier if you have children. Read books with them. Ask them what they like and why. 6 - CHILDREN - I have found, so far, that my best source of ideas are from my own children. They are avid book readers and of course children have the best imaginations. Pick their brains, like a sort of game. If I have a rough idea of what theme I want, I ask my kids to tell me the first thing that pops into their heads. I ask them more questions to elaborate of the idea (sometimes really silly, zany questions). Their answers are sometimes hilarious and very imaginative and I write them down as I listen. Before you know it, you will have a page full of ideas to make a story from. Sometimes there will even be potential for several stories from that page. | ||||||||||||||||||
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7 - IDEAS BOOK - I keep an ideas book and try to jot down ideas as I think of them. There are very annoying times when I have thought of something only to forget later on. Ideas can pop into your head in the most unlikeliest places. Something funny or upsetting could happen. Somebody might be talking about something interesting. You might remember a dream that would make a good story. These I find infuriating. I have very vivid dreams and if I could remember them all it would be fantastic. I keep thinking I should keep a notebook by the bed. 8 - REAL LIFE PROBLEMS - Family, school, friends etc, all bring problems from time to time and may be solved in certain ways. Could any problems you, your kids, your friend suffer be turned into a story? Was the problem resolved in an unusual way? Begin the story with a problem, middle - elaborate on the problem, end - solve the problem to give a satisfying ending. POPULAR THEMES - Friends/School/Family/Animals/Magic/Funny/Fantasy/Spooky/Adventure/Spooky Search Amazon Books below. | ||||||||||||||||||
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