Somebody Wanted But So Then However In the End

Somebody -- character, traits/flaws, interests, etc.
Wanted -- desire 
But -- obstacle (loss, fear, change, insecurity, etc.)
So -- character's attempt to resolve conflict -- a poor choice to complicate things (lie, cheat, steal, avoid, be fake, fight, etc.)
Then -- negative consequence to the poor choice (caught, loss of trust/friendship, punishment, guilt/shame, etc.)
However -- the aha moment, epiphany, internal turning point as climax (advice from an unlikely source, TV commercial, song on radio, flashback, etc.)
In the end -- lesson about life or coming to terms with inner struggle even if external conflict is unresolved, from now on... 

I've used story frames like this one and have seen good results with certain kids.  While the majority of my experience was with 4-5th-6th graders, I thought this through and am wondering if you might take this approach with younger kids:

During minilesson time, have each kid generate a list of 3 fictional characters they would like to write a story about.

Ask them to narrow their list down to one.  With this one character, ask them to answer this one question_  What does he/she/it want?  Then ask them to go write a story about it.

Next session, ask kids to share their stories.  After they have shared, ask them to read it aloud a second time but tell them this time you are going to ask them to stop periodically so you can ask the class a question about their story.  Anytime you hear them include elements that answer the "But/So/Then/However/In the End" elements, that is when you can interject a question for the class pointing out how important or interesting it makes the story for that element to be included.  

Next round, have them choose a second character, but have them include the Somebody/Wanted/However/In the End elements.  Repeat the process of sharing and pointing out how the "But/So/Thens" you hear help make the story more powerful/interesting/understandable/etc.   Using these terms a million times over will help kids to imbed these things in their thinking---- the auditory input from you using their actual stories will be what makes it stick for the long haul.