Transformative Story Writing: The Magic of Play (Guest Post by Kimberly Behre Kenna)

It was the final day of my creative writing workshop for middle schoolers. My phone’s timer chimed, so I said what I always did. “Okay, let’s gather at the table to share and wrap up.” But nobody moved. The room was silent, except for a few sighs and the scratch of pencils on paper.

A boy who’d barely spoken all afternoon leaned forward and gave a metal disk one more careful spin on the mirrored base. It hummed, high and steady, wobbling slightly as it began to slow.

“Wait,” he said. “Just five more minutes?”

And there it was, the shift I’d been hoping for. When the time came to stop writing, they didn’t want to.

Moments like that are why I’ve come to believe deeply in the role of play in story writing. Play paves a direct path into craft. Across middle grade, teen, and adult workshops, I’ve watched writers access plot, character, and emotional truths more readily through playful systems than through traditional prompts alone. When the stakes feel low and curiosity leads the way, story has room to emerge.

In a playful writing workshop, I like to start with objects kids can touch, move, or change. It’s not about organizing games for their own sake or designing activities to entertain before the “real” writing begins. We need engaging experiences that inspire questioning and metaphorical thinking. Sometimes that looks like spinning an Euler's Disk and listening as its steady hum destabilizes into wobbles and silence. Writers begin to wonder what changed, where tension began, and how an ending arrives. Sometimes it’s building a simple mobile with twigs and shells and removing one piece to see how the balance shifts: What happens when a character goes missing? How do we introduce a new one? Sometimes it’s moving a button along routes on an old paper map: Where and how must a character move, and what’s in their way?

One of the most striking patterns I notice across playful writing work is how quickly participants translate physical experience into story structure. These objects may not contain a story in and of themselves, but they can create conditions where story thinking happens naturally. Writers begin describing pacing, stakes, conflict, and resolution, the very language of narrative, before we’ve even discussed any craft terms.

Middle grade and young teen writers often think most fluently when kinesthetically engaged. I’ve seen the same effect with reluctant adults who believe play is simple and most certainly not a path to deep thinking and discussion. My belief is that play lowers the pressure to perform and replaces it with permission to explore. Play allows for rigor because it engages the body and senses and often becomes a safer doorway into complex emotions. Writers approach challenging themes like family discord or unraveling friendships at a distance where they can get close enough to feel but stay far enough away to examine sensitive details. This allows honesty to surface without the vulnerability of self-exposure. What begins as manipulation of materials becomes articulation of deeper meaning.

What fascinates me is that these student insights rarely come from any explanation from me. They emerge from personal observation. Someone notices the disk getting louder as it slows, and says, “It sounds like it doesn’t want to stop.” Another watches a mobile sway in the breeze of a fan and says, “If the wind gets any stronger, then everything’s going to change.” In those moments, we’re talking about goals, obstacles, and consequences but in language that feels discovered rather than assigned. Play makes craft visible.

I think often about that library workshop, about the fact that the students didn’t want it to end. Earlier in the week, some participants had hesitated to share or even begin writing, but with each day, their relationship to the process changed. They were no longer trying to produce a “correct” story. They were engaged in inquiry, noticing cause and effect, imagining possibilities, and testing ideas. In other words, they were thinking like writers (and scientists, but that’s another story!) I didn’t need to deliver a lecture on narrative arc or insist on prewriting strategies or terminology. I simply put something in motion and invited attention. From that attention, stories grew.

For educators and writers curious about integrating play, the goal isn’t to assemble a large toolkit or design elaborate activities. One well-chosen object or system is enough to start. The key is to invite observation before interpretation.

Spin something. (even a coin!)

Balance something. (a game of Jenga?)

Move through something. (puppetry or theatrical applications)

Shuffle and rearrange something. (OuiSi, Dixit, or generic playing cards)

Then ask: What did you notice? What changed? What surprised you?

From their responses, narrative language easily follows. Writers can then translate that language into characters and situations of their own. The playful experience becomes a bridge that they can return to anytime they need a boost.

That afternoon in the library, the workshop did eventually end, but the lingering students will always stay with me. It marked a shift from writing as performance to writing as exploration, from fear of getting it wrong to curiosity about what might happen next. That is the transformation I hope for whenever I bring play into story work — deeper engagement, writers leaning into their materials instead of away, and passionate discussions about story. Play is alive and joyful. It naturally invites writers in, and to their delight, it doesn’t let go.

After teaching fifth grade for many years, Kimberly earned an MA in Creative Writing from Wilkes University. Her children’s books have received recognition from the Nautilus Book Award, the Eric Hoffer Award, the Foreword INDIES Award, and the Green Earth Book Award. Kimberly has been a panelist and presenter at SCBWI events and workshops, the Virginia Festival of the Book, the Collingswood Book Festival, and the 2026 AWP Conference. She’s taught seminars on the transformational power of play on story-writing, most recently at Wesleyan University. You can learn more about her at KimberlyBehreKenna.com

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