A free child-led prompt collection
Questions that open a story instead of finishing it.
A useful prompt names one part of the story and leaves the answer wide open. Pick one question, let the child answer in any direction, and stop prompting when the story starts moving again.
Start with a world
- What is one rule everyone in this place must follow?
- What can happen here that could never happen at home?
- What place looks safe but has a surprising secret?
- What sound tells the character that something has changed?
- What ordinary object works differently in this world?
Find a character choice
- What does the character want badly enough to take a risk?
- What promise becomes hard to keep?
- Who misunderstands the character, and why?
- What does the character notice that everyone else misses?
- What choice would surprise the character's best friend?
Create trouble without supplying the answer
- What stops the obvious plan from working?
- What new rule appears at the worst possible moment?
- What goes wrong because two characters want different things?
- What mistake turns into a bigger problem?
- What would make the character change their mind?
Let the child choose the ending
- What is different now because of the character's choice?
- What does the character finally understand?
- What small detail shows that the adventure is really over?
- What promise, joke, or surprise should be the last thing we see?
- If the story continued tomorrow, what would be newly possible?