The Situation
Your students find it difficult to develop simple characters and plot outlines.
The Solution
Provide students with a couple of these print offs from the story and character generators below. Using the pages, they can develop their own characters using generic aspects of characterisation and plot construction. Alternatively, you can construct your own character/plot generators with more complex components to monoveur into the story. Even if students do not use the prompt, it might be enough to at least start a conversation if they are complete absent of ideas!
The English Classroom 