Advocates of extensive reading know the importance of a good story, and this teacher includes a one-semester story-writing activity in classes titled "Academic English" for students from all faculties in a Japanese national university, not only focusing on linguistic features and the writing process but also encouraging students to use their imagination and write at their level of proficiency. During the second semester each student writes one installment for a series of graded readers. This begins with brainstorming and an elevator pitch from each student followed by a process to choose the best series idea. Next the setting and characters are specified, then students pitch their plot ideas, write their episodes then peer-assess, all adding intrinsic motivation to engage with each other's ideas. This presentation will show lesson plans and look at the balance between giving students enough time to create ideas and the opportunity to make choices while avoiding them choosing the option that leads to the least effort.