Have you ever listened to a child tell you a story that contains a million amazing ideas, but they don't quite fit together? Maybe you know adults with the same problem! 
If our ideas are hard to follow, our audience will find it hard to enjoy the story. This is why it's important to structure our writing.

A well structured story:

• is easy to understand
• flows smoothly from one section to the next
• follows a clear narrative arc.

As young writers become more confident, they can play with story structure (for example, by starting at the end). This can be a lot of fun! But it's still important to make sure all of the story elements are there, so that readers are never scrambling to fill in too many blanks.
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How to help your child plan a well-structured story:
There are many ways you can do this, but here's one we use often!
Once they have their story idea, invite them to:

• think of three everyday things their main character does (these will help to describe their 'normal life' in the beginning).
• think of a strange or unusual event that affects the character (this is the where the action happens!).
• Finally, think about how that event changes the main character's normal life, for better or worse!

You will start to see a clear plot developing as the answers to these questions are added.

Then there is just one thing left to do: start writing the story!

Ria (Grade 3) used this prompt to a plan a story about her dog, Rex. Have a listen to her explaining her plan:

Ria turned her plan into a story by expanding her notes with details and descriptions. Read the finished story below!
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9 August is Book Lovers Day, a highly prestigious day in everyone's calendar. It will come as no surprise that we love books at Creative Write-it, and our studio housed hundreds in our awesome bookshelves. We'd love to show you, but since we are all at home we'll just have to show you our bookshelves!
We asked our Workshop Leaders to share pictures of their bookshelves and something they love about them. 
​Read on to discover five things we love about our personal bookshelves.