When my daughter was about 3, she started asking me to tell her a “talking story.” She didn’t want a story out of a book, but rather for me to make up a story for her. There’s something rather magical for both child and parent when a story emerges from the ether, existing in a space just between us. For some parents, coming up with a story on demand comes easily. For others, the request for a “talking story” may send shock waves of fear down your spine. It’s no wonder. While you might tell stories all day to friends, partners, and co-workers about things from your life, no one really teaches you how to tell your child a story from out of the blue.
If you’re one of the natural born storytellers, carry on. As you were. For the rest – I’d like to demystify storytelling a bit. I used to teach playwriting to students, and I promise you that every single person has it in them to make up a story. A story only needs four elements. Focus on these four things, and you’re on your way to creating marvelous tales that will delight your little ones.
4 Elements to Telling a Story
Element 1: Character
Every single story has at least one character.
Character is where I find it easiest to start. A character can be a person, but it can also be anything else, too: A dog, a dinosaur, an apple, a truck, the moon… anything.
Kids are actually far better at thinking outside the box than we adults tend to be, so my sneaky trick for beginning a story is to get the child to tell you who the story is about. The salt shaker on the table? Super. You’re on your way.
Give your character a name (I often use my kid’s name. Test the waters. Some kids like this, some don’t). Without fail, primary aged kids in my workshops always named at least one character “Bob,” so that’s always a good option! Alliterative names are also good. Selena the Salt Shaker. Any name will work.
Now, give your character an approximate age and a couple of personality traits. (Selena is in Year 1. She’s brave, but afraid of spiders.)
You’ll probably add more characters as you get going (see Element 4), but you can start here.
Element 2: Setting
There’s a good chance that your mind has already started to fill in the setting by the time you know who your character is. When I said “salt shaker,” did you immediately think “table” or maybe “pantry”? See, we humans are natural storytellers!
Again, setting can be anywhere at any point in history or the future. You can either choose a “logical” setting (i.e. – a rocketship in space 100 years in the future, a key in a father’s pocket, a tiger in a rainy jungle) or somewhere surprising (i.e. – Santa Claus on the beach, a unicorn in a taxi cab in New York City, Selena the Salt Shaker at the bottom of a toy box). There are advantages to both choices. Choosing the “logical” setting gives you familiarity. Going with a surprising setting can give you a jump start on Element 3.
Element 3: A Problem
Now, here’s where it gets meaty. It’s a pretty dullsville story if your character spends the whole of it just walking down the trail happily, then “the end”. Actually, that’s not a story at all. The problem is what makes the story.
Please don’t let this scare you when I tell you that there are a million bazillion problems that you can choose from. For your story, you only need to choose one! Here are a couple of options for tactics that work well for choosing a problem when telling a story to a child:
- Make it helpful: Is there anything that you’re working on with your child? Are they nervous about starting a new school soon? Maybe your character has to figure out how to fit in in a new place. Are they struggling to learn something new? Hey, so is your character.
- Make it silly: Silly is a universal language for kids. Characters having to eat disgusting foods, get very dirty, or being in charge of something wild are all silly problems. If you don’t mind “toilet” humor, a lot of authors make a lot of money on books about noisy farts and needing to go to the loo. They are real problems, ya know?!
- The higher the stakes, the more interesting the story: Use the scope of the problem and the urgency to up the stakes. Poor Selena at the bottom of the toy box. An OK problem could be that she feels lonely and wants to make a friend. A high stakes problem could be that, she’s a secret superhero salt shaker who needs to get back to the pantry in time to save the other spices from an out of control baking soda volcano that’s set to erupt in an hour if she doesn’t stop the evil Vanessa Vinegar!
Element 4: Action!
Here is where you connect all the dots, by moving your character in their setting through their problem to a conclusion. That’s the action, or the bulk of the story where “this happened, then this happened.” Always keep the PROBLEM in mind – you can choose how long it’s going to take you to get there, but solving that problem is your main objective.
A Simple Story Structure
You probably remember seeing a chart something like this in an English class, at some point. Those 4 essential story ements are all right there, and here is how you can easily put them together.
–Introduction (Character and Setting):
One upon a time, there was XXX character who was in XXX place. (S)he was a X and X (character trait).
Once upon a time, there was a 6-year old salt shaker named Selena. Selena was pretty brave for her age. Her only fear was spiders. Today, something strange happened. Selena woke up, not on her usual comfy shelf on the pantry, but at the bottom of the toy box.
–Problem:
The only problem was ….
Salt shakers don’t belong in the toy box! What was going on? Selena suspected it had something to do with her top secret identity. You see, she may look to all the herbs and spices like a regular 1st grader who loves spelling and gymnastics, but she’s known all her life that she’s a Super Salt Shaker with some pretty cool super secret powers. As she looked around, she noticed a note with her name on it … on the stationery of her arch nemesis, Vanessa Vinegar. It read, “I’ve trapped you, at last, and I can now complete my plan to take over the pantry, where I belong! I will be activating a baking soda volcano the likes that has never before been seen at exactly 10a.m. You’re stuck here. Don’t think you can stop me! Bahahahaha!” Oh no – her family and all her friends were in danger! Selena looked around and noticed a plastic watch in the toy box. It was already 9a.m. She only had 1 hour to stop Vanessa Vinegar!
–Steps to solving the problem:
What does the character try? What gets in his/her way? Maybe she gets some help (other characters that you can make up). Don’t solve the problem too easily – kids live for the complications! If you’re not sure, start with two complications before you solve the problem.
Selena was going to have to get out of this toy box and back to the pantry – and fast! Selena could fly, but she’d need some help getting out of the box, first. There were a lot of toys in here, maybe they could help.
Complication 1: She asked the toy airplane for a boost, but he said “sorry, my batteries have run out. Why don’t you ask Sam the Slinkie for a hoist?” Sam, who was the grumpy sort, sighed and said he guessed he would, but not until after his nap. Then he closed his eyes and started snoring. Selena didn’t have time to wait! How else could she get out? She noticed, in the corner, an open container of Play Doh. She zoomed over and – lucky day – it was still sticky. Selena grabbed a huge handful and started sticking pieces up like a rock climbing wall to work her way to the top. All of the action figures had taken notice and were cheering her on. When she started running low, they threw her more sticky Play-Doh. Stick-climb-stick-climb-stick-climb, until finally, she was at the top. “Thanks, guys,” she said, and she flew off towards the kitchen as fast as she could.
Compliction 2: Reaching the pantry, she saw Vanessa Vinegar covering everything in baking soda. All the villian had to do was cover it in vinegar for the biggest mess anyone there had seen. The pantry was moments away from disaster! Selena had to stop her without letting her spill a drop.
Vanessa hadn’t noticed, but right in front of her was a huge spiderweb. Selena knew if Vanessa got into it, she’d be so tangled it would take her ages to get free. But, Selena felt frozen. She was too afraid of waking the huge 8-eyed spider in the corner.
Selena closed her eyes, took a deep breath, thought about everyone she cared about in the pantry, and puuuuushed Vanessa into the web.
“Noooo,” Vanessa Vinegar cried! She couldn’t move, and Selena zipped around at superhero speed, blowing away all of the baking soda.
–Problem is solved:
Yay!
Her Super identity wasn’t secret anymore, but she didn’t mind. She got huge hugs from her parents and high fives from all the other spices. Even the jars of tomatoes and lentils were grateful. They worked together to lock Vanessa Vinegar back in the cleaning cupboard.
And the spider? He took one look at all the commotion and crawled away to look for a quieter closet.
–Conclusion:
What has changed by the problem being solved? Did the character learn something? Is the location a safer or friendlier place? What’s a little message that we can take away from this story?
Selena went to bed extra early that night. Her parents said she didn’t even have to do her chores. She felt brave for conquering her biggest fear. The spider was much less scary than she’d imagined.
Tomorrow, she was going to ask her parents if she could start rock climbing lessons.
Of course, there are many, many ways to structure a story, but if you want to start with the basics, this one is tried and true. Stick with Character, Setting, Problem, and Action – and have some fun with it (try out some voices, quirky extra characters, funny names, etc.). You’ll have a winner.
Your story does not have to be the next Hemingway (if you’re telling a 3 year old, it probably ought not to be!). Your kid just wants something meaningful and unique to your family. Creating a world that’s just for you two is what telling your child a story is all about.
Need more bedtime ideas? Here are some unexpected songs that make great lullabies. Or, for more bedtime stories, 25 beautiful Australian picture books from 2019.
PIN IT TO READ LATER
