7th grade humanities
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Brainstorming story ideas

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Authors often take the time to brainstorm and generate ideas before beginning to draft a story.  Below are a few strategies that authors, and YOU, can use to generate some story ideas for your personal narrative!  By using these strategies, hopefully you will be able to find a memory/moment that is meaningful enough to share with others and to write about.  


strategies for generating story ideas...


Think about...
  • People who are important to you
  • Places that are important to you
  • Objects that are important to you
  • Life-changing moments or turning points in your life
  • Challenges that you've overcome
  • Moments when you've learned something important
  • Moments of strong emotion (For example:  happiness, sadness, jealousy, pride, shame, regret, etc.)
  • "First time" moments
  • "Last time" moments
  • Defining moments (Moments that show readers something important about you

Also think about memories connected to particularly strong emotions.  These often make a vivid narratives. 
Some strong emotions are: 
  • Sadness
  • Happiness
  • Anger
  • Excitement
  • Fear
  • Jealousy
  • Loneliness
  • Confusion
  • Regret
  • Anxiety
  • Love
  • Shock
  • Humiliation
  • Shame
  • Pride

Once you have a few moments in mind, choose one and begin to "write off" of it.  Write everything that you can remember about that moment.  You can even include a reflection about how you feel about that moment now.  Repeat this with a few of your story ideas so that you can later have a menu of options to choose from when you choose which one you'd like to further develop. 
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