Stories are best when they are “cartoon-sized”. Like a cartoon episode, they start, have a plot, and wrap up within 25-35 minutes. Using the Story Driver job should help us keep our stories short, but what if class ends and the story is still not wrapped up?
The best way to wrap up a story that did not get finished yesterday (or in the first part of block) is to, during reading time, simply make it up yourself as you write, have the kids make it up as they dictate, or have the Story Finisher wrap it up in L1 (for lower levels) or L2 (in higher levels) at the end of the story creation process. No need to feel like you have to go through the whole process all over again.
It is best, I have found, to alternate a story creating day with a writing/reading day, to keep things feeling fresh. These two activities, repeated in an A-B-A-B pattern, are usually enough to keep kids’ interest, with maybe the occasional Word Chunk Team Game or Running Dictation or Listen and Draw or Look and Discuss or other fun activity on Fridays.