Taya Beattie, Early Elementary Float Teacher
This blog post will guide you through becoming your very own storyteller! Whether you are an adult wanting to have some creative fun with family and friends, or a student wanting to expand your writing skills, the 7 sentence story structure is guaranteed to give you some VERY silly results. Much like Mad Libs, the 7 sentence story is a fill-in-the-blank format that guides the story maker(s) through creating a complete story with arch and all. Simply follow the guidelines below, fill in the blanks, and you will find yourself crafting unique and sometimes hilarious stories with your kids. It is important to note that the 7 sentence story can be a great writing guide but can also be played as a very fun game. If you write down multiple responses for each answer (making sure to keep the answers in its 7 designated piles) you can scramble the answers and weave some pretty silly tales. Also, this game can be great to play at dinner or during family time, having everyone participate and fill in the blanks as they meet their prompt.
Enjoy!
- Once upon a time, there was a __________
(At this time, you can prompt someone to fill in the blank. If participants don’t know what to put here, I like to ask what a favorite food might be, animal, or number. Really any noun, and then have the expand on it. The more detail in the noun the funnier the end result.) - And every day _____________
(Every day something happened, what might be that something?) - Until one day _________________
(Here is when I’ll ask about something very silly that could happen, like raining chocolate chips…) - And because of this _________________
(What might happen to something, fall off a chair? Lightning struck? - And because of that _________________
(Same question as above just with a completely different answer) - Until finally _________________
(This is the point in the story where we are looking for a resolution. So what might stop happening? Did someone take a nap? Did the bubble pop?) - And ever since that day _________________
(What could the very end of a story look like? Is there emotion for the characters? Was everyone happy? Was there a change in the scenery? The villagers ran away? How might this story end?
