Explain to your daughter that every story has a beginning, a middle and an ending. Children often get caught up in the adventure of telling a story and forget where the plot was leading.
Talk about the difference between main and supporting characters. Describing parents and children as the main family and cousins or distant relatives as extended family often helps children understand this concept. Your daughter should be aware that supporting characters can be used to introduce new information or other characters.
Teach the concept of writing toward a goal. Choose an accomplishment for the main character to complete as a way to reinforce this idea. For example, a character could solve an old mystery, try to understand a neighbor's behavior or resolve an issue with the environment. This also further illustrates the three parts to a story: beginning, middle, ending.
Allow your daughter to brainstorm freely with pen and paper. A tape recorder also can be used to record bits of a story line or a particularly good description of someone. Each paper should be labeled as to how it pertains to the story. One paper could be characters, for example, and another could be the plot.
Choose art work or pictures that help stimulate your daughter's thinking about her story or concept. For example, art work that depicts ocean life or scenes of a rain forest can get the imagination flowing. Explain that each picture tells a story, then ask her to tell a story about what she sees. Or have your daughter draw a picture and then tell the story behind it.
Avoid too much information about real places, people or things unless your daughter is familiar with them. The story should be believable. Remember: An author should write about what she knows. The better acquainted the writer is with her material, the better her writing will be.
Keep the story short. Children get bored easily when a project becomes too much like a job. Short stories will ignite your daughter's imagination and maintain a balance of fun. As she becomes more adept, encourage her to write other stories using the same characters or even go back and add to her original story line.
Type or print out the story when she is finished. Your daughter will feel she has accomplished something special. The printed copy also will allow her to share her work with friends and family.