The Story of Things: Part 1

Wide blue eyes implore me, “How do I start a story?”

Whether the person is two or twenty, the question of beginnings is often troubling. Parents complain about not knowing where to start when trying to help a kid start writing. Adults complain about not knowing where to start a memoir idea.

This is not to make light of a complex topic, but sometimes the more you struggle with something the more complicated it becomes.

When I tutor, especially when school is out for the summer, one of the things I do is work with a child’s imagination. For whatever reason, be it not hearing stories when they are tiny or simply relying too much on the stories of others in games and shows, kids often reveal under-developed imaginations.

One of the quickest ways to uncover this condition is to hear the whine, “I’m bored.”

“Really?”

“Yes, there’s nothing to do.” The blue eyes scan a room often overflowing with sports equipment, games, technology, and toys.

“Hm. Get some paper.” Ideally, a decorated and doodled notebook dedicated to this summer’s writing.

The Story of Things - What Story Might This Tell? 

That’s when we begin. There are many places to start, but one easy one is to have the child use all five senses with a familiar object.

Tell the kid to close his or her eyes and grab an object from a pile.

“Keep your eyes closed, and tell me what you feel.”

I might be told the object is round, smooth, flat, cold, wet, furry, sharp, or squishy. I then ask the child to sniff the item. Does it have a scent? If so, what does it remind them of? Balls often smell of leather or grass. Dolls might smell like cotton or cinnamon toast. Whatever the child says is something I record.

They then open their eyes, and tell me what they see. That is usually the easy part.

Next, I ask them to tell me what the sounds are that go with the thing. Is there a thud when a ball lands in a mitt? Is there a thwack when it is hit with a bat?

We keep going with the more obscure association of taste. What do they eat that reminds the child of the thing? Hot dogs from a grill? Ham sandwiches from a picnic?

I make a chart of the responses grouped under the sense heading for each response. We then focus on just one entry in the chart, and write five different sentences about that entry.

“Round” might become:

·         As round as the Earth, the baseball held a world of summer within its surface.

·         The pitcher gripped the stained round ball, and then released it in a catastrophic pitch.

·         Spinning the round ball on his fingertip, the egotistical catcher smirked at Carl.

·         The amazing round ball rolled along the grass after my fumbled catch failed.

·         Round, streaked with green, and hard as rock, the baseball sat unused and neglected in the discarded toy pile.

Each sentence starts a different story, which we discuss but do not write. The child picks the favorite sentence after the conversation. For homework, the sentence must be expanded into a simple story using a bullet list of ideas.

Next time, we will flush out the ideas in The Story of Things: Part 2.

Keywords: character, cartoon, traits, writing, writing sprints, character traits, students