by Chiara Colombi

A wise person once said: “That’s one small step for Storystormers, one giant leap for Storystorming.”

Alright, I may have tweaked the quote a bit, but you’ll soon see that the sentiment holds true. Today, we’re storystorming our way to giant leaps of inspiration one small step at a time…literally. Ready to get meta? We’re going to create story ideas out of steps.

First, some context. The power of “one small step” is a key theme in my debut picture book ROCKET SHIP, SOLO TRIP, illustrated by Scott Magoon and releasing this February 2024. It tells the story of a young rocket braving the unknown on her first journey into space, in a celebration of the big firsts of life’s littlest explorers. Over the course of her mission, Rocket learns that when you’re faced with a big, overwhelming task, breaking it down into smaller steps can help you find your courage. Taking that first small step is all you need to launch yourself into success. Or in our case, inspiration.

This prompt is hands-on and involves steps of its own, so grab a pen and paper (or your Notes app, if that’s your jive). Let’s gather up some steps and see where they lead us!

Step 1: Gather your steps
Walk around your house and gather three to five items that each represent a step in a process. These items should be wholly unrelated to each other.

Examples: a hair dryer represents a step in a morning routine; birthday candles represent a step in a celebration; a watering can represents a step in gardening.

Step 2: Line them up
Once you’ve gathered your items, line them up and write down the order that they appear in. Then rearrange them and write down the order again, two more times.

Examples: Order #1: hair dryer; birthday candles; watering can. Order #2: birthday candles, hair dryer; watering can. Order #3: watering can; hair dryer; birthday candles.

Step 3: Turn your steps into stories
Storystorm one to three ideas that involve these items in the orders you’ve written down. How could these items combine to tell a story? Maybe you come up with a how-to book that guides the reader through a series of steps using your items in an unexpected way. Maybe you find an epic quest that only a kid reinterpreting everyday objects could possibly imagine. Maybe just one of your objects reminds you of an activity that filled you with wonder when you were younger—is there a story in that wonder and the path it could lead you down if you took that first step?

There is no right or wrong way to find inspiration in the objects you’ve gathered. The goal is to use one or a few small steps to launch yourself into story drafting success.

An example, to bring it all together…

Here’s a story idea I came up with, using the items in order #2 above (birthday candles, hair dryer, watering can): “How to Throw a Birthday Party for Your Pet Cactus.” (Goodness knows if I could get a cactus to live for a full year, it’d deserve a celebration.) Step one in the story would involve a cake and candles, naturally. Step two would require assisting the pet cactus in blowing the candles out by backing them up with a hair dryer. And step three would find the MC showering their cactus with gifts in the form of a downpour of water from their favorite watering can. Toss in a twist like the cactus not responding well to the hair dryer and sudden shower, and now there’s a problem my house-plant-loving MC needs to solve.

…Or perhaps I just run with the “Birthday Party for Your Cactus” idea and leave the steps out, because there’s gold in that tale of prickly affection all on its own!

As Stephen King so wisely points out in On Writing, often the best stories come out of the collision of two “previously unrelated,” very disparate ideas. Think of your favorite picture books, and you’ll see this time and again. Bedtime for construction vehicles. Mild-salsa-taco-loving dragons. Misbehaving dinos doing all the things parents warn their kids not to do. A girl planting love. Mashing up previously unrelated steps is a way to create new collisions in your mind that just might spin and swirl in such a way that gravity pulls them together into a shimmering new planet, a.k.a. a story.

So, what are you waiting for? Start your next story with one small step.

Chiara Colombi is giving away a PB critique with a 30-minute zoom call and a signed copy of her book to two separate winners.

You’re eligible to win if you’re a registered Storystorm 2024 participant and you have commented only once on today’s blog post.

Prizes will be distributed at the conclusion of Storystorm.

Chiara Colombi’s debut picture book, ROCKET SHIP, SOLO TRIP, illustrated by Scott Magoon and published by Viking, releases on February 27, 2024. An Italian-American bilingual wordsmith dedicated to the art of engineering with words, Chiara worked for a decade as a translator before pivoting into marketing at a data privacy startup, all the while carving out space for creative writing and storytelling. She is as comfortable talking about PII (personally identifiable information) as she is talking about PBs (picture books), though she’d love it if you asked her about Jupiter’s moons. She currently lives in California with her family and an open view of the sky. Connect with Chiara on Bluesky @chiaracolombi, Instagram @ChiaraBColombi, or through her website ChiaraColombi.com.