So, I think it’s time we put some of these ideas to work. What I want to do with you is take our very simple story from the beginning (the girl going to the store) and try to use what we’ve learned so far to make it better.

You can do this, too, by making up your own simple situation and turning it into a story. It could be

A bear meets a rabbit as winter is coming.

A monster really has to go to the bathroom.

A kid who has a loose tooth.

It doesn’t really matter what you choose, just so long as it’s something you want to have fun with.

The one we started with had the three basic parts (the beginning, middle, and end):

My mother asked me to get some milk from the store.

I went to the store and bought some milk.

I brought the milk home.

So, we can start here, but with all we’ve learned so far, we know that there are a couple of things that should be built-in first. For instance, what kind of person is our hero, and how do we want her to change?

We’re just going to pick something. Let’s make her… shy. And by the end of the story, while she is unlikely to be the complete opposite of that, we should make sure that she has gone through some changes that allow her to be more vocal, or outspoken, or extroverted, or some such.

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Lemon often had trouble in crowds of people. Lemon wasn’t her real name, of course; her parents had started calling her that when she was a baby and it just, sort of, stuck. But Lemon’s problem wasn’t her name—it was what she had to do when people called it. Because that meant she would have to talk to them.

At home it wasn’t such a big deal. She had been talking to her parents for quite some time. Too long, her parents sometimes teased her. It was like one day before she was 1, she just started talking in full sentences, and she didn’t stop. Even at 2 in the morning. And that went on for quite some time.

But when she was 3 they took her to a nursery school and… she decided she just didn’t want to talk anymore to anyone who wasn’t her parents.

So she didn’t.

“Lemon!” her mother called. “Come down here. I need some help.”

Lemon raced down the stairs and into the kitchen where she found her mother covered in flour and bits of eggshell. Lemon stood and stared.

“Lemon,” her mother continued, “I just ran out of milk and I need to finish this recipe for the bake sale. Take some money out of my purse over there and run down to the store and get some for me, will you?”

Gulp.

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And there’s the beginning of our story. We’ve got a little background on our character, and we’ve got a sense of why this task might be difficult for her (but not impossible!).

So next week we’ll keep going and we’ll see what else we can throw at her!

Now, you try with your story.

Happy writing, young writer.