The big idea
AI can suggest a sentence. You decide whether to use it, change it, or throw it away and write something better. That decision — made 7 times out of 10 — is what makes the story yours.
Before you use any AI chat tool
Most AI chat tools — ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini — have a minimum age of 13 to create an account. This activity is designed so you can do it without creating any account at all — the AI sentence options are already included below as pre-written choices.
If you want to try it with a real AI tool, use a parent or caregiver's account in a supervised session — not your own. That also applies to school projects.
The My Line / AI Line Rule
The rule is simple: in a 10-line story, you write at least 7 lines yourself. AI can contribute up to 3 — and even those you can rewrite, reject, or use only as a starting point. The point is that the core creative decisions stay with you.
My Line / AI Line Rule
Minimum 7 of 10 lines: yours.
Your lines (7 minimum)
Lines 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 10 — the opening, the middle, and the ending. The decisions that shape the story. You write these.
AI contribution (3 maximum)
Lines 3, 6, 9 — you can use a pre-written AI suggestion, rewrite it, combine it with your own idea, or skip it entirely. Your choice.
Why 7 out of 10? Because creative ownership isn't about whether AI touched the work — it's about whether you made the meaningful decisions. Setting up the character, building the conflict, and writing the ending are the choices that define a story. If those are yours, the story is yours.
AI-assisted vs AI-generated — knowing the difference
This is a distinction that matters — for school projects, for your creative identity, and for how you talk about work you've made.
✅ AI-assisted
You made the core work. AI helped with parts — suggested a sentence, offered an option, corrected a spelling.
Examples: You wrote 7 of 10 story lines. You used spell-check. You used auto-correct. You asked AI for one synonym and chose one.
You can say: "I wrote this with some AI suggestions."
⚠️ AI-generated
AI made most or all of the work. You provided the prompt and accepted the output with little or no change.
Examples: You typed "write me a story about a robot" and submitted what came back. You asked AI to write the introduction of your essay.
You cannot say: "I wrote this." You can say: "This was generated by AI."
The story ownership meter
After you finish writing, mark where your story falls on the ownership meter. Count how many lines were genuinely yours — not just accepted AI output.
How many of the 10 lines did you write (or significantly rewrite)?
The target is 7 or above. If you're at 4 or 5, go back and rewrite two more lines from scratch — change the direction, add a detail only you would think of, give the character a reaction that came from your imagination. Then re-count.
One safety thing to know
Important
Real AI writing tools — the ones built by reputable companies for general use — do not ask you personal questions about your home, your school, your parents, or where you live.
If a tool that calls itself "AI" asks you personal questions, offers to be your friend, or asks you to keep your conversations secret — that is not how legitimate AI writing tools work. Tell a caregiver immediately.
AI writing tools are text tools. They help with sentences. They do not need to know your name, your age, where you go to school, or who your friends are.
The activity — write your story
Choose one of the three prompts below. Write lines 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, and 10 yourself. For lines 3, 6, and 9, you can choose one of the pre-written AI options, rewrite one, or skip AI entirely and write your own.
Activity · Kid-leads · No device needed
Choose your story prompt
✅ No-login version (recommended)
Pre-written AI options are included below — no device, no account, no internet needed.
With a real AI tool
Use a caregiver's account only. Ask AI for one sentence at a time. Apply the 7-of-10 rule.
Prompt A
A young inventor builds a machine that can remember everyone's forgotten dreams.
Prompt B
A library discovers that every book has a secret door to the world inside it.
Prompt C
A child finds a map in the attic that leads not to treasure, but to a conversation their grandparent never finished.
The AI options below work for any of the three prompts — they're designed to connect to whichever story you chose. You are not required to use them.
AI options for line 3 — pick one, rewrite it, or write your own:
Option A: "The machine hummed like a question no one had thought to ask yet."
Option B: "There was a door in the back of the library that had never been there before."
Option C: "The map was drawn in pencil so faint it could have been breath on glass."
Or skip AI entirely and write line 3 yourself.
AI options for line 6 — pick one, rewrite it, or write your own:
Option A: "Every dream it stored had a colour — and some of them were colours that didn't have names."
Option B: "The first door she opened led somewhere cold and green, with a smell like old rain."
Option C: "The handwriting changed halfway down the page, as if someone else had picked up the pen."
Or skip AI entirely and write line 6 yourself.
AI options for line 9 — pick one, rewrite it, or write your own:
Option A: "She realised the machine wasn't storing dreams — it was storing the feeling of having had them."
Option B: "Behind every door was a version of the story that the book had never dared to tell out loud."
Option C: "The conversation had never been finished because no one had known how to start it."
Or skip AI entirely and write line 9 yourself.
✅ Caregiver check-in
- What was your child's score on the ownership meter? Was it 7 or above?
- Which lines were the hardest to write? Which came most naturally?
- Did they use any of the AI options? Did they change them, or use them as-is?
- Can they explain the difference between AI-assisted and AI-generated in their own words?
- If a teacher asked "what did you contribute to this?" — could they answer clearly?