Creative Writing For Kids: 25 Story Starters That Actually Get Them Writing
It wasn’t the wind that moved the leaves this morning…
Doesn’t that line get you excited to write?!
Doesn’t it make you want to grab a piece of paper and just continue with the storyline to see what happens next?
In my Facebook group, Pages of Her, I held a Story Spark Prompts challenge. Every Wednesday, I would share a single line, and you could write anything you wanted using that line as your starting point.
You could turn it into a story.
You could turn it into a poem.
The point of the challenge was simply to put pen to paper. To take something you saw or heard and use it as inspiration to create something.
When we can use our creativity to turn the simple beginning of a sentence into a written piece of work, it’s magical. But sitting down and writing something doesn’t always come easily.
The ideas get stuck.
We struggle with coming up with how to start something.
Or we have so many thoughts going through our heads that we just don’t know what to do with them.
Now imagine being a child again.
You love to write, but you just don’t know where to start. You want to create a story, but you think all of your ideas are stupid or just not worth putting on paper.
And sometimes, all you need is one sentence. One sentence that makes you wonder.
What happened?
Who did that?
What’s hiding over there?
What happens next?
That’s what a good story starter can do for a young writer. It doesn’t tell them what story to write. It simply gives their imagination somewhere to begin.
And once they begin, you might be surprised by where their imagination takes them.
WHY STORY STARTERS WORK
Sometimes, all it takes is one sentence to unlock an entire story.
I wrote a story based on that single line that I shared above. And it was phenomenal. Would I have come up with that story without the line?
Possibly, but I highly doubt it.
It took my creativity in a direction that I had never explored before, and it made writing fun. It didn’t overcomplicate the process. It simply gave me a starting point when I had no idea what to put on paper.
And that’s exactly what a story starter can do for a child.
It takes away some of the pressure of having to come up with an idea from nothing. Instead of staring at a blank page and wondering where to begin, they already have that first little piece. From there, they get to decide where the story goes.
And the best part is, multiple children can use the same story starter and come up with completely different stories.
So, what does a story starter actually look like, and how can one simple sentence open up an entire world for a child?
25 CREATIVE WRITING STORY STARTERS FOR KIDS
Here are 25 story starters designed to spark curiosity, encourage imagination, and most importantly, get kids writing.
It wasn’t the wind that moved the leaves this morning…
When I opened my lunchbox, there was a note inside that definitely wasn’t from my mom.
My teacher walked into our classroom carrying a giant cardboard box with holes poked in the top.
My brother’s imaginary friend left muddy footprints across my bedroom floor.
I was staring into the mirror on a normal morning until my reflection blinked and I didn’t…
I knew I shouldn’t have brought that rock home from the beach.
We left for a three-hour field trip this morning, but when we returned, three years had passed.
When I erased the sentence from my notebook, something in the real world disappeared too.
I almost tripped on the tiny present that was outside my bedroom door this morning as I was going downstairs…
I knew something was strange when my popsicle started talking to me after the first lick.
When I woke up this morning, there was an open door beneath my bed…
Every time the clock strikes noon at my school, and the teachers disappear for lunch, the characters in the library books step into the real world.
I always thought my friend was joking when they said the clouds held memories, until it started to rain.
The package on our doorstep had three words written across the top: OPEN BEFORE MIDNIGHT.
My best friend dared me to press the red button, so obviously I pressed it.
The map said there was nothing beyond the forest. The map was wrong.
Our lights went out during dinner, and when they came back on, one extra person was sitting at our dinner table.
Everyone in town knows the secret. We just aren’t supposed to talk about it.
The piece of gold was just sitting on the end of my bed, and I knew it wasn’t there when I went to bed last night.
I thought it was just another puddle until something waved at me from underneath the water.
When I looked out my bedroom window this morning, there was a staircase that hadn’t been there yesterday.
The new kid at school knew my name before I introduced myself.
Everyone in town knew not to knock on the blue door.
On Tuesday morning, every grown-up in the world disappeared.
I reached into my pocket and pulled out something I had never seen before.
HOW PARENTS AND TEACHERS CAN USE THESE PROMPTS
Now that you have 25 story starters, what do you actually do with them?
The easy answer? Give one to your child and let them write.
But I think there is so much more that we can do with a single sentence to help kids explore their creativity without making writing feel like another assignment they have to complete.
The goal isn’t perfect spelling. It isn’t perfect grammar. And it definitely isn’t about creating the perfect story.
It’s about giving kids permission to imagine.
One of my favorite ways to help kids explore a story starter is something I call Notice, Wonder, & Imagine.
Notice: What do you notice about the story starter? What stands out to you?
Wonder: What does it make you wonder? What questions pop into your head?
Imagine: What do you imagine happening next? Where could you take the story?
Maybe that mysterious door underneath the bed leads to another world. Maybe it leads to their school.
The best part of using these story starters is that there is no wrong answer. That’s the fun of creative writing.
Here are a few simple ways to use the prompts:
Have the child write for 10 minutes without stopping.
Have the classroom take turns adding sentences to the story to make it a classroom project.
Instead of sitting down to write the story first, have them draw the scene out.
Choose the same prompt for several kids and see how completely different their stories become.
Let your child choose a prompt at random without reading it first and see where their imagination takes them.
Sometimes kids don’t need us to give them an idea. They just need a little something that helps them discover an idea of their own.
That’s exactly why I created the Story Sparks: Kids Writing Prompt Deck.
The cards give young writers a place to begin while leaving the rest of the story completely up to them. There’s no right answer. No story they’re supposed to write. Just a prompt, their imagination, and whatever happens when they put the two together.
Pull a card after school.
Use one during quiet time.
Bring them into the classroom.
Or let your child choose one whenever they tell you, “I’m bored, and I don’t know what to do.”
Keep the deck somewhere they can reach for it again and again whenever they need a little spark to get their imagination going.
Ready to see where their next story takes them? Explore the Story Sparks: Kids Writing Prompt Deck here. Makes a great teacher gift.
Because sometimes an entire story is hiding behind one little sentence.
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