Children sometimes find it a surprise to know that I get stuck when I'm working on a story. Sometimes I don't have an idea at all. When that happens I need to loosen up. And so I let my imagination go back to when I was growing up.

There's really no magic gold dust to writing. Everyone has a story. Most people who write books draw on their own childhoods. Even children have had early years. If they can't remember their story themselves, they were told the tale.

Try this. Finish the sentence:

When I was a child __________________________.

Try to use as few sentences as possible. All good stories are really about a problem. Most satisfying endings are about how the problem was solved.

Some wonderful examples I encountered workshopping this exercise:

"When I was a child my dog had puppies. In the closet. In the bedroom. On the landing. On the stairs and in the hall. The neighbors came. One by one, the puppies were taken away. But we kept one."

What a wonderful picture book that would make!

I got this one doing a workshop in the Arctic from an Inuit man:

"When I was a child I was walking slowly behind my parents. When I looked up they were gone. I cried and ran. I ran as fast as I could. I found them behind a snowbank. They were there waiting for me."

Very simply told, there's a lot of drama here.

Have the children try illustrating their stories. Or have them illustrate someone else's story. As professional illustrators often do, suggest they make their characters animals. This gives lots of latitude.

Another fun exercise involves coming up with a story from an existing picture.

Look at this illustration from Jingle Bells.

Or this one from The Big Storm.

Think about the someone who lives in one of those buildings. Who is that person? What are they thinking?

You might try showing the class an old photograph, perhaps from the Wild West. Have them make up a story just letting their imaginations run free. Then have them do what professionals do: have them research their facts to see how accurate they have been. It's fun, it's professional and it's a great way to retain historical facts.

There's really no such thing as an original idea. Every story is based on something else, sometimes very obviously. It's the personal touch that the writer puts in that makes the story unique. For example, The Cake That Mack Ate is based on The House That Jack Built. Pizza For Breakfast was a retelling of The Magic Fish.

Retelling a traditional tale in the vernacular is a wonderful exercise.