Put the stick down! You can write a great short story easily without using magic or prayer. What you need is a story scaffold. Scaffolds are those big metal pipes and bits of wood that builders put up all around a building they are preparing. A story scaffold is a way to build a guide to your story so you never get lost or run out of ideas.

To make a story scaffold you need to pick a story type, some characters, some important places, a big event that starts an adventure, a big event that ends the adventure, and something that has changed because of the adventure. That sounds really scary, but if you just go through them in that order, a story will start to appear. Don’t think too hard, just think what would fit what you already have.

The easiest way to explain this is to do it with you, so you can see an example. I made the story scaffold below without really thinking ahead. I just wrote what came into my head, and what fit the categories I had already answered. Let’s build a story scaffold together:

·         Story type (pick this based on your school assignment): Scary story.

·         Characters: 3 teenagers, Clive, Molly and Alice. 2 adults, Simon (a bank manager), Theresa (a youtuber), and a dog (muffin).

·         Places: Starts at a theme park where the 3 kids are together, then moves to a big cave nearby.

·         Big event that starts adventure: Clive leaves the group of teenagers at the theme park and disappears. Molly and Alice get the 2 adults to help them look for him and they search a cave.

·         Big event that ends adventure: Clive wasn’t in the cave, he was in the woods nearby. He comes to the cave looking for Molly and Alice. The rest of the group follow the dog and find a secret hidden church in the cave. The church has a vampire inside. Everyone runs away.

·         Thing that’s changed: Muffin has a little bite on him, they decide to tell everyone he had a fight with a cat. All the characters keep quiet, but give each other knowing looks when they see each other in the bank, or walking home from school. They all sub to the youtuber, who starts making horror videos.

There you go! When you finish your scaffold, look at any bits that don’t fit or you don’t like. I originally had my story starting at the high school, but I changed it to the theme park because this made more sense with the rest of the story.

Easy! Give it a go! Write me a scaffold below, I’d love to see your brilliant ideas.