Story Starters

When the boys were in elementary school, getting them to write was like pulling teeth.

They were required to keep a journal (no spelling or grammar counted) because the school thought this was a good way to encourage creative writing.

They mostly drew pictures of ninja warriors and Mutant Ninja Turtles. (What can I say? They were creatures of their times! LOL)

Then the teachers thought writing and illustrating their own original book and reading them to us on Parent’s Night would be a good incentive.

Not.

I asked them why it was so hard to write and they told me it was hard to think of anything to write about.

So I started them off with the first line of a story and told them to finish it. They were off and running!

That’s how I came to invent ‘Story Starters’.

I would write the beginning of a sentence on a piece of paper,

"Once upon a time…"

"It was a dark and stormy night…."

"A long, long, long time ago…."

"In a place far far away…"

"Call me Ishmael….."

"It was the best of times; it was the worst of times….."

(Adding the lines the little ones needed to write on) copy them, stack them up, add padding glue and viola!

 I gave them to the teachers to hand out to the kids as needed.

The teachers were happy, the kids were happy, I was happy. A win win situation all around.

(It never was the ‘get rich’ scheme I thought it might be, because apparently, it’s not an original idea! LOL)