Help your child plan a story they can finish
Plan a manageable story with your child using a character, goal, problem and connected ending. Includes an original example and a simple activity.
For children who have story ideas but lose track of the plot.
Help your child plan a story by choosing one character, something they want and a problem that gets in the way. Decide how the character responds before they begin drafting. A few connected notes can help a child finish the story without planning every sentence.
Understand the idea
A story plan should make the important events connect. Ask: "What does your character want? What stops them? What do they do about it?" These questions give the story a direction.
A setting matters when it affects what can happen. A locked community hall creates a different problem from an open park. Choose a place your child can describe and a problem they can manage in a short piece.
The ending should follow from what the character does. It can resolve the practical problem, change the character's understanding or do both. It does not need to end happily, but readers should understand why it ends there.
Say: "Let's work out what happens before we find the best words for it." Keep the plan brief. Planning a whole page of description can leave a child with little energy for the story itself.
See it worked through
A paper boat that cannot leave the pond
Character and goal: Sam wants to float a paper boat across a shallow pond at the park.
Problem: Wind keeps pushing the boat back to the same corner.
First attempt: Sam launches it from the other side, but the wind returns it to the reeds.
Choice: Sam stops pushing it away and watches where the water carries a fallen leaf.
Ending: Sam launches the boat from the leaf's starting point. It passes through a gap in the reeds and reaches the far side. Watching the water helps Sam find a route that works.
Goal
Sam wants to float a paper boat across the pond.
Problem
The wind keeps pushing it back.
Response
Sam watches the path of a fallen leaf.
Ending
A different starting point gives the boat a way through.
The choice grows out of the failed attempt. The ending uses something Sam notices, rather than introducing a stranger who fixes everything. Ask: "Which part of the beginning makes the ending matter?" Sam has wanted to get the boat moving all along.
This plan leaves room for your child to invent dialogue, observations and feelings when they write. It sets the events, not every word.
Try it together
Draw a short story plan
Use this original starting idea: "A child needs to return a borrowed costume before a school performance."
Draw four boxes for the goal, problem, response and ending. Ask your child to make one note or sketch in each.
Ask: "What makes returning it difficult?" Let your child choose one obstacle. Then ask: "What can your character try? How will that affect the ending?"
Have them tell the whole story aloud using the boxes. If the ending introduces a new problem, return to the last box and decide where this particular story should stop.
Check the answer
A possible plan is: the child wants to return the costume; a button has come off; they tell the costume's owner instead of hiding the damage; together they attach a spare button before the performance.
The ending addresses the button problem and follows from the decision to tell the truth. A sudden bus breakdown could start another story, but it would distract from this one unless the plan changed to include it.
Check their understanding
Ask: "Why does your character make that choice?" If your child cannot explain, they may need a clearer goal or a more manageable problem.
Next ask them to point to something in the ending that connects to the start. Look for an explained connection, not simply the same character appearing in both places.
Make it easier or harder
For a child beginning to tell stories, use drawings and let them dictate. You can offer a familiar problem, such as leaving something at home, while they choose the response.
For a confident storyteller, ask whether a failed attempt changes the character's next decision. Invite an ending where the original goal becomes less important, provided the reader can see why their understanding changes.
Teaching notes
The NSW Department of Education describes planning strategies that vary with genre and purpose. This four-part home activity is our own scaffold, not a required narrative structure or an official test prompt.
Writing practice
Your child can try a writing prompt and receive feedback against the ten NAPLAN criteria.
The platform is currently free. Create a parent account, then add your child to get started. Each child can start 1 new writing piece a day.