Draven Jackson
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As Umberto Eco once said, ” To survive, you must tell stories.” Young writers are some of the most creative and inspiring wordsmiths on the planet. Their minds are constantly coming up with fantastical ideas and amazing stories – unfortunately, those stories are quite often forgotten the moment the capes are put away and dinner is served.
So how can you keep your young writer feeling creative, imaginative, and challenged? Encourage them to write down their stories, keeping track of all the wonderful worlds they build and the fantastic characters they think up!
It’s the youngest minds that contain the most creative potential, so it’s our duty as adults to make sure that potential isn’t wasted or forgotten. It’s important to work with your little ones to help them grow and evolve into the wonderful, creative mind you know they can be.
If your young author has already worked through our previous prompts in our article, “Creative Writing Prompts for Young Writers,” here are some more fun and inspiring topic ideas to help them continue on their writing journey.
Level 1: Beginner
While the youngest minds might have the most creative potential, they may not yet have the necessary skills for writing long, complicated stories with complex characters. Here are some simple beginner prompts to help them start writing creatively early.
Grammar mistakes are completely okay as long as they’re having fun and being creative!
1. Fiction: Describe your dream job – what do you want to be when you grow up? What kinds of things would you do at your dream job? Where would you work – in an office, at home, in the middle of the rainforest? What kinds of people, animals, or things would you work with? How much money would you make? What’s your favorite part of your job?
2. Fantasy: Tell a story about what would happen if all the animals in the world could talk. What would they say to humans and how would they act? Would there be some animals that are smarter than others? If they can talk, would they also start working at different types of jobs? Where would they live? What kind of animal do you think would be your best friend?
3. Poetry: Write a poem about your favorite thing. It can be anything – a toy, a book, a person. You can make it however long or short you want, with rhyming or no rhyming. Try to describe your favorite thing: what does it look like? What does it do? How does it smell? Write about why you like it or why it’s special.
Level 2: Intermediate
For young writers with more knowledge on how to write properly and character or world-building, here are some more challenging prompts that will test your young writer’s ability to create a cohesive and continuous story. Try to encourage them to have a clear progression of events from start to finish, and make sure they know to include interesting, thought-out characters.
To create an even better bonding experience, write your own story alongside your little one. Creativity doesn’t dim with age – use this as an opportunity to let your own imaginative juices flow and write a fun story you can share together!
1. Action and Adventure: Imagine you’re a spy tasked with a secret mission. You’re hired by the president to find an important book stolen from the White House. Where do you go first and what do you find? How do you use your secret spy skills to recover the stolen item? Who took it and why do they want it? Do you get it back?
2. Comedy: You wake up one morning to discover that you’ve swapped bodies with your best friend. No one knows why it happened or how to switch you back, but you find a note that says you only have one day to live as your best friend. What would you do and where would you go? What would your friend do if they were you? Is the note true, or do you stay as your best friend forever?
3. Fairy Tale: Imagine you are a character in your favorite fairy tale – are you the princess? The knight? Are you the talking animal friend that helps the princess? What happens in the fairy tale? Is the princess cursed or locked away? Does the knight save her, or does she save the knight from a scary dragon? Do you have any special skills that help you during your adventures? Write your own version of your favorite fairy tale.
Level 3: Advanced
For those writers who are skilled at the art of world-building and creating characters and want to be challenged to create more complex storylines with longer plots, here are some more advanced creative writing prompts! Be as complex and creative as you want to – it’s your story and you can write it however you like!
1. Spooky: Your best friend comes to visit you and brings a weird book that they bought at a thrift store to show you. The book is written in a language you don’t know and looks to be a few decades old. When you try to read some of the words, you feel a weird breeze and hear whispers in the distance. Over the next few days, strange things keep happening around you. What came out when you read the book and why do things keep happening? How do you get rid of the curse/ghost/monster that came from the book?
2. Historical Fantasy: Imagine you’re a wizard living in the Middle Ages. In the land where you live, magic is illegal, and you could be thrown into jail if anyone finds out that you’re a wizard. However, you still want to use your magic to help people and change the terrible law. How do you perform magic without getting caught? Are you able to change the law so that you can live freely and perform your magic without fear?
3. Science Fiction: You are walking home from school one day when a man stops you and says he’s your great, great, great, great, great-grandson from the future. He says he needs you to come with him because you’re the only one who can stop the invasion of cyborg men in the year 2700. Do you go with him? What are the cyborg men coming to planet Earth for, and are you able to stop them? What happens to the future?
Level 4: Expert
For the young writers who have tested themselves and feel confident in their writing, world-building, and plot developing skills and want to try to create even longer, more complicated stories, here are some expert-level prompts for you!
Don’t be afraid to try and write something crazy and outside the box – writing is all about being imaginative, creative, and writing the story you want to read.
1. Romance: When you were young, you were playing in the park when you met another little boy/girl. You two were inseparable, always making up fun stories and creating the most incredible adventures without ever leaving your neighborhood. Then, one day, your childhood friend never shows up to play, and you don’t see them again. When you grow up, you forget about your friend until they appear in your life again, saying that they’ve never forgotten you. Where do you meet and what is your relationship like now? Are you able to become friends again, or do you fall in love with your childhood friend?
2. Western: You’re a cowboy in the Wild West and you’ve been searching for your long-lost brother all your life. He disappeared when you were young, and you’ve made it your life’s mission to find him. You become the sheriff of your town, and the first person you arrest is an infamous outlaw who looks a lot like your brother. Who is this outlaw, and is he the brother you’ve been trying to find? What do you do next?
3. Fantasy / Isekai (Japanese “otherworld” Fantasy): You’re a world-renowned author who is famous for your fantasy novels, but you’re beginning to run out of ideas for your story and you don’t know how you want it to end. One night, you fall asleep worrying about what you’re going to do – and in the morning, you wake up in the body of your main character! Your story is alive and now it’s your job as the hero to finish your adventure. What do you do? What does the end of your story look like? Are you able to return to the real world, or are you stuck in your story forever?
If you need more writing prompts, please check out our previous article, “Creative Writing Prompts for Young Writers.” Tell us if you have any other prompt ideas in the comments!
About Draven Jackson
Draven is an avid writer and reader who enjoys sharing her opinions on movies, books, and music with the rest of the world. She will soon be working as a teacher in Japan and hopes to use her experience to connect with other teachers and students around the globe. Draven spends most of her time at home with her family, her dogs, and her ferret.
To see more, view all posts by Draven Jackson here.
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