I hope you’re all enjoying the first day of the school holidays. If you’re looking for activities to do over the next two weeks, why not try some writing? To get you started, we have a special treat today. American author, Claire Youmans, is joining us and has a great list of creative writing prompts to help you come up with some new story ideas.

WHAT IF…

Writing and Drawing suggestions by Claire Youmans

For each suggestion, you can draw a picture of the story you create or of one of the characters. Make them clever! Make them fun! Make them exciting!

1. “Hi,” said the colt. “What are you?”
“I’m a dragon. You sure look different. What are you?”
(What happens next?)

2. If you could turn into a bird, what kind of bird would you be? Why?

3. If you could fly, where would you go first? Why?

4. If you were a bird, would you like people? Would people like you? Why or why not?

5. If you could turn into a dragon, would you like being around people? Why or why not?

6. If you were a dragon, what kind of dragon would you be and what would you eat?

7. If your mother could turn into a bird like you can, but your father was always human, would you spend more time with your human relatives or with your bird relatives? Why?

8. Would you like to play with other birds even if they weren’t the same kind of birds as you are?

9. Would you, as a bird, like to play with human children? Would they like to play with you?

10. Can a dragon, a bird and a horse be friends? Why or why not?

About Claire

Claire Youmans is the author of The Toki-Girl and the Sparrow-Boy series for tween through adult readers. It takes place in Meiji-era Japan, in the late 1800s. There were lots of changes then, and lots of adventures to be had – especially if you can turn into a bird. Or a dragon. Claire Youmans is from the US, and now lives in Tokyo.

There are four published books in the series – Coming Home, Chasing Dreams, Together, and Uncle Yuta has an Adventure. Book 5, Noriko’s Journey, will be released this summer. Claire’s books are available in paperback and ebook, and the first three are also available as an ebook box set.

If you’d like to know more about Claire and her fabulous books, you can find her at www.tokigirlandsparrowboy.com

I hope you got some great story ideas from Claire’s fantastic prompts. If you’re looking for more ideas, check out the rest of the Holiday Writing Inspiration Posts, and check back here for another new writing prompt next week.

Happy Writing!
Claire and Helen