Hi there, Jamie here! I have been an English tutor for nearly a decade now and in that time I have taught creative writing to hundreds of children. And though they may struggle with creative writing in many different ways, one thing I have seen again and again is that many children find the hardest part of writing a story to be, well, simply getting started. Who will their main character be? What obstacles will they need to overcome? Who else is in the story? What kind of tone will the story have? Even with good planning, children often find themselves struggling to get their story going, and so come to resent story writing, as it is just ‘too hard’, or ‘not something they are good at’. But this is often not true.

A few years ago I had a simple idea: what if I wrote the first part of the story for them? Establish the protagonist, set the plot in motion, but leave the story at a place they can confidently pick up from? Then my students can finish the story however they like to create a complete story that is uniquely their own. The result? Children who actually enjoy writing stories. Yes, by removing their greatest obstacle, my students can write without stress and begin to find the enjoyment in creative writing. And once they enjoy writing, technical improvement is sure to follow.

Having seen how well this technique has worked with my own students, it is now my greatest wish to pass it onto children outside of my own county. To that end, I have now written a book of 40 diverse short story introductions, so what you’ll see here are just some samples of those story intros. Go ahead and show them to the budding author in your family, and hopefully you will see the same great results I have with my own students.