Story Ideas

· What if there were no people on Earth? (Maybe there used to be and something happened to them, or maybe humans had never existed at all.) What kind of animal(s) do you think would rule the planet? Write a story that takes place in that kind of world.

· During a science lesson, the teacher accidentally spills chemicals onto the document camera, creating a cloud of purple gas that quickly fills the room. When the air clears, you (or your main character) and your classmates discover that you all have superpowers! Describe how this experiment started (give your story a beginning), describe the accident, then the exciting events that happened after that.

· You and a couple of your classmates at Science School are building a large robot to enter in the Intergalactic Demolition Derby that will happen next month on Mars. All planets have been invited to enter, and your team is representing Earth at this very exciting event which will be viewed in homes all across the galaxy! First prize is one billion dollars! Mars won last year and is the favorite to win this year (and be careful, some of the aliens in your galaxy like to cheat). In your story, be sure to describe your robot, your team’s trip to Mars, and the action-packed destruction in the Demolition Derby!

· Write a story that begins with these sentences: John stood completely still, his legs refusing to move. A bead of sweat began to trickle down the side of his face.

· During a Mariners/Yankees game, a spaceship lands in the outfield! Nine aliens come out of the ship and demand to play a game or they will destroy the stadium! The aliens tell the Mariners and Yankees that anybody from their teams can play in the game against them. Write a story about this exciting game using entertaining details and description!

· Write a story that ends with this sentence: With a sigh, the cat put his tail back into the pond.

· Make up a folktale about why leprechauns dress in green.

· Write a story that begins with this sentence: Danny discovered it in the field last summer.

· One morning, you (or your main character) find a shiny green ring in your box of cereal. Later, you discover that it allows you to look exactly like any one person you touch (same size, clothes, voice, everything) for 24 hours. You can only touch one person per day (and that person doesn’t change at all). But when you get to school, you see that some of the other kids have rings too! Then, someone touches your arm and runs off, looking just like you! Write a story about this idea.

· Write about the day you got to play for the Seattle Seahawks!

· Make up a folktale about how rainbows came to be.

· Queen Abigail’s royal cook has been knocked out by a pan that fell off the kitchen rack. Simon, the cook’s apprentice, is left to create a magnificent dinner for the queen’s party, which is happening in less than two hours! These are the “old days,” before restaurants, so what happens next? By the way, the queen likes to check in on things…and she has a nasty temper.

· Your main character won a small island in the Puget Sound. The island has many trees, beautiful views of the water, and a fantastic secret! What does your character do with this island and what is its secret? Tell us this story.

· Write a story using all of these characters: a lonely king in his castle in the clouds, a tough orphan girl with a werewolf sister, two obnoxious troll brothers, and a talking squirrel named Spike.

· On the way to Juneau, Alaska to attend a wedding, the small plane that you (or your main character) and three other friends were flying in has engine trouble. It crashes in an isolated area of Alaskan wilderness during icy winter. All four of you survive, but the plane explodes soon after you escape the wreckage. You need food and shelter before you freeze to death! Write a story about this doomed flight and how your group struggled to survive...will you make it out alive?

· Think of one of your favorite movies or books. If you could write a sequel to it, what would happen next in the story? Write that story.

· Write a story that starts with this sentence: Billy Jenkins never believed in magic or bad luck, until he met the twins.

· Tell the story of Emmet the elf and his journey across the Desert of Dreams.

· What if you (or a character) discovered that Superman was real, and that he was someone you thought was a regular person all this time? You’ve never seen anything about him in the news, so has he ever used his powers in your world? Write a story that includes how you found out who he was and why Superman has never told anyone that he exists.

· As you (or a character) were walking to your friend’s house one blustery and cold St. Patrick’s Day afternoon, you noticed that a cat had cornered something by a neighbor’s front gate. Crossing the street for a closer look, you soon realized that the mangy orange feline was trying to get its claws on a tiny leprechaun, who was furiously keeping the cat at bay with a little stick! You quickly decided to help the little man...What happened next? Do you have an adventure after the rescue? Is there a pot of gold or wishes involved? Or a mischievous scheme? (Leprechauns are notorious tricksters, I’ve heard.)

· What would happen to our world or our way of living if there suddenly was no sound and no one could hear anything? Write a story about how that happened and what life was like after that.

· If you were given the power to make one character from any fiction book come to life for one day, who would it be and why? Write a story about that day.

· While at the mall one afternoon, you (or your main character) see someone in the distance who looks exactly like you! He (or she) nods once at you from across the crowd of shoppers. Write a story about this event and what happens next.

· Make up a folktale about how the zebra got its stripes.

· Write a story that includes all of these things: ten angry babies, a can of soda, an old dog, a troublemaking fairy, and a traveling circus.

· You (or your main character) and a team of space explorers crash-land on a planet where dogs rule and people are pets! Begin your story sometime before landing on the planet.

· Write a story that begins with these sentences: The birds had been the first to leave River City, remembered Kevin. Their songs had disappeared from the skies one morning and never returned. That had been the start of a very strange summer.

· You (or your main character) and a small team of others (scientists? professors? soldiers?) have been sent by the President to be the first humans to meet the aliens who have landed on Mount Saint Helens. No one knows if they are friendly, but the President knows you and the team can handle the job, no matter which way it goes! Describe the trip to the mountain and what happens when you get there.

· What if honeybees were as big as elephants? Write a story about how life might be different.

· If every time people made a snowman it came to life (until it got too warm), how would our lives be changed? Would this be a good thing or a bad thing? Write a story using this idea.

· Write a story that begins with this sentence: When I woke up this morning, I looked out my bedroom window and saw very strange footprints in the snow.

· A mad scientist has built a secret underwater base (with lots of crazy traps to protect it) in the Puget Sound, where he plans to turn the ocean into chocolate milk because it’s his favorite drink! After talking to some equally strange characters, you (or your main character) and a team of government agents have found some clues to the location of the secret base. Begin your story with the agents gathering those clues, then describe the adventure your team has.

· Write a story that begins with this sentence: The Griblix only comes out at night.

· Imagine that you (or your main character) woke up one morning and discovered that you had switched bodies with your pet. Write a story using that idea.

· What if rain could hurt you if it landed on you? Had it always been that way? How would it change how people lived? Write a story using that idea.

· Think of a book you really liked. Imagine you were able to join the characters in the book. How would the story change? Write that new story.

· Write a story that begins with this sentence: Old King Lorick had once been a wise and noble king.

· You and three of your classmates have been training (taking afterschool classes) to become race car drivers. This year, you four have been invited to race in the Indy 500. Describe the action-packed events from start to finish.

· While looking in the mirror one morning, your reflection reaches out and grabs you (or your main character), pulling you into the mirror! You wake up on your front lawn, with your reflection staring down at you, and the world seems very different. Write a story using this idea.

· Imagine you (or your main character) found a genie. Your story should describe how you found this genie (has a beginning) and what problems/adventures finding a genie might cause. Don’t forget to describe the genie!

· What if time travel is possible, but only a few people can do it? What if those people could only travel one direction in time and could never go back to where they came from? Write a story using this idea.

· Imagine you are the king (or queen) of blue whales, the largest animals on Earth. You are leading your fellow whales to an important meeting of all ocean animals. Why? What happens when you arrive? Write a story using this idea.

· Write a story that begins with these sentences: Cooper’s Junction had once been a wealthy gold-mining town in the days of the Old West. But now, few people walked its dirt streets, and the wind whispered secrets through the lonely alleyways.

· An alien from the planet Galathoom beams down to your school playground during recess, demanding to join in the game you are playing. Describe that first meeting and whatever happens next.

· Write a story that begins with this sentence: It all began in the laboratory of Professor Kaboom.

· Imagine that all the things that used electricity, gas and other power suddenly stopped working. Write a story about when that happened, and how it changed the life of the Murphy family forever.

· Write a tale about the mysterious, magical battle for the Stone of Sadness that happened long ago in the Desert of Dreams.

· During recess, you (or your main character) and some friends find a glowing golden key in the grass. A few minutes later, when the bell rings, you notice that a strange door has appeared at the top of the hill! No one else except the person holding the key can see it. Write a story using this idea.

· Write a story that begins with this sentence: Lucy had always seen strange things in the darkness, things that no one else could see.

· Aliens have kidnapped your class, taking you to their home planet and putting everyone into an intergalactic zoo! Your story should begin with the kidnapping. Also, what does the “cage” for your class look like, what is your new life like, and how does your class escape? Do you help any other zoo creatures along the way?

· What do you think life on Earth would be like if people only lived to be thirty years old? Write a story about people living that life.

· A mysterious tunnel appears in the side of a hill in downtown Seattle. Everyone who has gone in has never returned. You (or your main character) and your team of scientists and soldiers has been asked to go in. Write a story using this idea.

· Write a story that begins with this sentence: Joe’s garden has some unusual plants.

· Make up a folktale about how the skunk got its smell.

· The queen of all frogs has finally learned to speak English and has decided it’s time to tell the human kid in the big house to leave her fellow frogs alone! How does the queen convince the kid, or does she?

· Write a story that begins with this sentence: It had been raining hard that gloomy afternoon, the day that everything changed.

· Tell the story of old Mr. Brown, his collection of strange rocks, and the fifth graders who thought he was a wizard.

· While walking along the beach one morning, the little prince of Kaskadar picked up a conch shell, put it to his ear and heard the strangest thing! Write a story using this idea.

· If you could visit any one moment in human history, which moment would you choose? Write a story about visiting that time.

· Make up a funny story about a day that everything went wrong for you. It should have a beginning, middle and end.

· Imagine you are twenty years old! Write a story about your life at this age.

· Write a story about something one of your parents did when they were a child. If they never told you any stories, then make one up!

· If you could be anybody on Earth for one day, who would you be? What would you do? Write about that day.

· Write a story about building the perfect robot and what you would use it for.

· What will the world be like in one hundred years? Write a story about that time.

· Write a story about building your dream house. Be sure to describe what it would look like inside and outside. What would the rooms be like? What would your yards be like?

· Write a story about the most embarrassing thing that ever happened to you. Where were you? When was it? What happened afterward?

Write a story having one of these titles:

· Race Against the Clock

· The Tryouts

· Backwards Day

· The Secret of Timber Tunnel

· The Play That Changed the Game

· My Life as a Tiger

· A Cow on the Roof

· Lost at Sea

· Journey to the Ice Tower

· Super Bowl Surprise

· When the Sun Disappeared

· Swimming with Sea Lions

· Extreme Sports Championship

· On the Island of Goochie-Geechie

· Kumi and the Silver Stairs to Everywhere

· Race Across the Moon

· The President Is Missing!

· Insect for a Day

· Hatching a Dinosaur Egg

· The Return of the Griblix

· My Life as an Eagle

· Johnny Blue Meets Sandwich Man

· I Woke Up with Wings

· On Tour with the Greatest Band in the World

· Growing the Perfect Garden

· The Stars Stopped Shining

· Invasion of the Ants

· The Last Wild Horses

· Going to a Concert with Grandma!

· The Kid with the Green Face

· One Puppy Too Many

· Champion of the World

· The Nightmare

· Swamp Creature

· A Young Grizzly Bear’s First Salmon Hunt

· The Soccer Star

· Monkeys, Monkeys Everywhere!

· The Case of the Stolen Key

· Old Mrs. Munson Has a Unicorn

· The Most Expensive Car Ever Made

· A World without Night

· The Whispering Rock of Frock

· How I Saved the Game

· Zoo Animals on the Loose

· The Strange Family Next Door

· A Ride on the Rainbow

· Rescue on Mount Saint Helens

· The Unluckiest Boy Who Ever Lived

· On Top of a Cloud

· My Turn at Bat

· The Empty Room

· It Came from the Deep!

· The Spider That Grew and Grew

· The Day of the Championship

· Giant Kitten on the Loose

· The Practical Joke

· Ride the Waves

· The Angriest Boy in the World

· Chocolate Rain

· The Brave Pony

· When Mars Had Oceans

· Ariana’s Golden Elephant

· Race Across the Desert

· Lightning in a Bottle

· The Eating Contest

· Rhino on the Run

· The Creature of Willow Creek

· When the Oceans Disappeared

· Avalanche!

· The Chocolate Chip Cookie Gang

· It Came from the Clouds

· The Whistling Whopperbopper

· Cat in the Candy Store

· The Purple House on Murple Street

· When My Brother (or Sister) Became President!

· The Destruction of Planet Prialas

· Finding Bigfoot

· Dinner with the Slob Family

· The Elephant Wedding

· My Invisible Dog

· The Battle for Kormok Castle

· Sam’s Sister Is a Cyborg

· American All-Stars vs. the Aliens

· The Greatest Fireman Stories Ever Told

· Lisa Lived Forever

· Zoo Mystery

· Trying Out for America’s Got Talent

· Demolition Derby

· The Search for the Loch Ness Monster

· Commander Cool and Brainless Boy

· Princess Shelly Takes Charge!

· The Storm of the Century

· Earl Ate Everything

· The Families of the Future

· Girl Scouts Gone Crazy!

· The Day I Saved the Planet