Intergenerational Storymaking: How Rick Williams Empowers Young Sci-Fi & Fantasy Authors
- rick@rickwilliamsbooks
- Jul 18
- 5 min read
Updated: Sep 1
Foster your child's creativity with collaborative writing, worldbuilding, and creative writing prompts for kids.
Welcome to the heart of our family's storymaking adventure! After publishing nonfiction history books and learning how to write international thrillers, I never expected to write sci-fi/fantasy books with my grandkids. For A Summer with the Star Life Keepers, we have released a special edition of our first book that includes a bonus short story about the Dragons & Dinosaurs War.
We’ve also released Story Writing: A Workbook of Creative Writing Prompts for Kids 8-12, designed for parents and educators to use independently or alongside Star Life Keepers.
MENTORING YOUNG STORYMAKERS
My writing-with-grandkids experience has motivated me to collaborate with young students of family friends (a high schooler and a college student) who want to learn how to build worlds, create illustrations and maps, and make books.
SUPPORT FOR PARENTS AND EDUCATORS
Our family has also created The Storymaking Hub to help parents and educators interested in ways to further engage kids in creative writing. Our Fantasy Worldbuilding & Writing Lab forms the heart of this new educational platform, which we are beta-testing. It includes 30 free, downloadable resources for family and school projects.
WORLDBUILDING WITH YOUNG STUDENTS
The Dragon & Dinosaur Chronicles series blends the enchantment and faith-infused themes in C. S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia with the epic battles between good and evil found in J. R. R. Tolkien’s works.
At the end of The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien addressed the written history that Bilbo and Frodo Baggins created about going “there” on adventures and coming “back again” to report what had happened.
In this blog series, I’ll share behind-the-scenes details about how I collaborate with young creators to develop stories, worlds, and artwork. I will also delve into our “before & after” process of working with artists in India and Brazil to transform basic drawings into professional illustrations and maps. Below is one of the first examples:
THERE & BACK AGAIN
In The Return of the King, Tolkien described Frodo Baggins passing his house keys to Samwise Gamgee as he prepared to join Gandalf and elves, such as Elrond and Galadriel, for their final journey to the Gray Havens.
Frodo handed Sam “a big book with plain red leather covers.” One of Bilbo’s working titles for it was “There and Back Again.” Frodo, however, wrote most of the book. His title considerations were “The Downfall of the Lord of the Rings” and “The Return of the King.”
HOW OUR JOURNEY STARTED
As a collector of historical memorabilia, I gave my oldest grandson, eight-year-old Brady Williams, a hands-on introduction to the history of writing instruments in April 2018. The session included an eagle quill, steel-tip pens from the 19th century, elaborate fountain pens, and standard gel and ballpoint pens, along with a blank journal for practice. I also did “show and tell” using my two traditionally published American history books to demonstrate how written words can be published.
Two months later, Brady came into my home office and suggested we co-write a children’s fantasy book about dragons and dinosaurs. In his story, Jason would be in 6th grade, and his sister Amanda in 7th grade; their cousin Elisa, who lived nearby, was in 8th grade. When Brady heard that dragons and dinosaurs usually don’t appear in the same books and movies, he said, “Pappap, you’ll figure it out” and left the room.
I shelved my writing projects, retired from being a biotech executive, and learned how to write kidlit, as well as set up our family’s indie publishing company.
STAR TRAVEL
A key next step was to visit the nearby Chapel Hill planetarium. We needed a way for Jason, Amanda, and Elisa to travel back in time a year to avoid family tragedies—and to prevent Jason’s hearing impairment. Instead, the kids end up in Bukania, a medieval realm in the Belacamber parallel universe, where they are part of the royal family.
We drew inspiration from the planetarium exhibits—especially an armillary sphere and the celestial globe used by Apollo astronauts during training—to create a Star Globe for the Blakeslee family’s star-traveling adventures. The armillary sphere, an ancient navigational instrument, is often depicted in sci-fi/fantasy books, movies, and games, such as Dumbledore’s office in Harry Potter and Magic: The Gathering cards.
Here is an example of how we used an iPad to create a simple drawing of a Star Globe and the resulting artist illustrations.
SCI-FI/FANTASY MASHUP
For our story, Brady and I blended elements from Jurassic Park; video game hybrids; Christopher Paolini’s Eragon and dragonriding; Brandon Sanderson’s Evil Librarians; “King Arthur & Robin Hood” adventures by John Flanagan; and fantasy bestsellers by authors like Shannon Messenger and Brandon Mull.
In honor of my three adopted Chinese grandchildren, I wove characters—Maester San Bao Shan and his sons Bo and Wu—into a tapestry subplot loosely based on 1421: The Year China Discovered America by Gavin Menzies.
ALCATRAZ AND THE EVIL LIBRARIANS
Brandon Sanderson’s middle-grade sci-fi/fantasy novels served as benchmarks for Star Life Keepers and the Dragon & Dinosaur Chronicles series. Sanderson’s first book was special for our family because it inspired Brady Williams to read epic sci-fi/fantasy books. Here is the text he sent me:
8:57 PM on January 8, 2021
“I finished the 1st book of Evil Librarians!!! I am so happy J”
PASSING THE TORCH
Brady’s younger brother Caleb was actively involved in building the initial Belacamber world. He has picked up the baton, helping me develop scenes and new creatures for the sequel Orion Fire Storm, e.g., a Midnight Demon giant worm that “genetically engineers” hybrids, a Spinodon (spinosaurus-pteranodon mix), and a Wolf Warrior (humanized dire wolf).
Future books will follow the ongoing adventures of Jason, Amanda, and Elisa as they learn how to use Star Life Keeper powers to save their families, neighbors, and nations from Jurassican assaults. They must collaborate with different cultures and races to form the Stars of Unity pendant, which will enable them to stop the invading dinosaurs and hybrids.
Here is a quick overview of our Summer Program for Young Creators, including the Dragons & Dinosaurs Imaginarium. This “readers’ club and more” program will enable young readers to follow our journey while gaining access to free stories, artwork, and collectible cards.
Thank you for following our Storymaking with Rick Williams blog! I’d love to hear your ideas for future topics.
Thanks!
Rick Sr.
P.S. I’ve accumulated a wealth of information that I’ll be sharing about how sci-fi/fantasy books can positively impact childhood literacy, creativity, emotional well-being, and critical thinking—and can even serve as a STEM gateway. For the second blog, I’ll start with a personal story about how reading Star Life Keepers gave hope to the ten-year-old nephew of a friend.
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