Writers carry a pen and a piece of paper with them wherever they go, so they can jot down their ideas. They store their ideas in a journal.

All writers keep journals. A journal can be a blank exercise book, a folder or a little black book, but I suggest you use an A4 ring binder (if you haven’t got one already, you can get one in WH Smith for 49p).  The great advantage of a ring binder is that you can stick in anything – stories from the paper, loose paper, ideas scribbled on the back of envelopes and even pictures cut out from a magazine.

What should I put in my journal? Anything - but here are ten journal tasks to get you started!

Have you ever noticed that newspapers are always full of stories, even if there is not much happening that day? To fill the paper, journalists write stories about strange animals, or people with crazy habits. You can turn these news stories into fiction – a girl in one of my classes found a news report about a dog that shot his owner (really! The dog caught his claw on the trigger when scampering about in the back of a truck), and turned it into a brilliant story!

Hint: You’ll usually find these stories tucked away in the corner in the middle of the paper. The free Metro that you can pick up at tube stations has three or four of these stories every day. Start collecting them now, and you’ll never be short of a story idea ever again!

Task: Skim through a newspaper for unusual or amusing stories (they often involve animals). Cut it out and stick it into your journal.

When I was ten, I loved the Middle Ages.  Battles, chivalry, castles and the Black Death - fantastic!  Being a bloodthirsty boy, I soon found out everything I could about it.  We were allowed to do a project on our interests in Year Five, and mine was about two hundred pages long! I bet you’ve got interests too – horses, flower arranging, even fencing.  Did you realise you can use your interests and hobbies to help you write stories?

What an attitude! If everyone thought like this we’d never have any sci-fi, fantasy, historical fiction, etc.  Do you think J.K. Rowling has ever met any wizards? Of course she hasn’t! 

Task: Find ten interesting facts about your hobby. (You could then try to include them next time you write a story). One boy I taught loved horses, and he wrote a brilliant story about a talking horse based on the research in his journal!

Eavesdropping means ‘listening to other people’s conversations’ – and it is a great way to improve the dialogue in your stories How can you write about them boys don’t think about how they speak? Hang around your brother, and try to secretly write down everything he says!

Task: Eavesdrop on your parents/brothers and sisters/friends having a conversation. Try to remember everything they say, and how they say it. Then rush to your bedroom and jot down everything you heard.

Remember when you were little, and you bombarded your parents with annoying questions about the world:

“Why do I have to eat my vegetables?”
“Why do I have to brush my teeth?”
“Why is the sky blue?”

The story comes from inventing an imaginative answer – “You have to eat vegetables because they otherwise they’ll cry.”

Task: Write five ‘why’ questions in your journal. Here’s one to start you off: ‘Why is my brother allowed to go to bed an hour later than me?”
Task: Write answers to each of your ‘why’ questions: “Your brother is a secret agent, and he needs that hour to fight evil.”

Some people find a brilliant way to design a character is to draw them first! I came up with an idea for a story by doodling a cat. As I scribbled away, I added a top hat and a bowtie – and before I knew it, I had a character I wanted to write a story about!

Task: Draw the most devious, cunning and downright evil in the world.
Task: Draw a human hero – but they must not be good looking.
Task: Draw an animal character wearing human clothes, e.g. a whale dressed in a football kit.

Knock knock!
“Who’s there?”
“Doctor.”
“Doctor who?”
“You said it,” laughed David Tennant.
(Note: this joke is copyright Mr Hitchen, and must not be repeated without permission).

Jokes are a great way to find story ideas – because you can always expand the joke with description and dialogue into a story. One of my classes once wrote stories based on ‘a chicken crossed the road’ joke, and they were brilliant!

Task: Ask your friends, look in joke books, and write down five ‘knock knock’ or ‘Why did the chicken cross the road?’ jokes.

It is always fun to clip out pictures from magazines of models, pop idols and film stars, and describe them in 2-3 sentences as if they are really ugly, e.g. Brad Pitt has devious, cunning little eyes, and a nasty, superior grin.

Task: Find a picture of someone terribly handsome. Stick it into your journal, and underneath it describe the person as if you thought they were the ugliest person in the world!

A piece of clothing or a hat can suddenly make a character seem real. Where would Cruella da Vil be without her Dalmatian coat?

Task: Write a list of ten unusual items of clothing, and who is wearing it e.g. a large purple bowler hat worn by a baby girl.

One way you can make a character stand out in a story is to think of an unusual name. The great Victorian writer Charles Dickens was the master of this, inventing such characters as ‘Tiny Tim’, ‘Oliver Scrooge’ and ‘Fagin.’

Task: use the internet, ask your parents, and come up with ten unusual names – five for a girl, and five for a boy!

...or spot in a cafe, or in the park, or even waiting in the playground waiting for your parents. I once sat opposite a tiny woman with remarkable lips. I think all her teeth had fallen out, as it looked as if her lips were trying to escape down her throat! Naturally, I jotted down everything I could remember about this woman when I got home, and included her in my next story!

Task: Be on  the lookout for someone unusual. When you see them, try to memorise everything about their appearance. When you get home, jot down what you can remember in your journal. You may like to also add a sketch!

(c) Nick Hitchen 2007

Last updated on August 10, 2007