In this research, children were asked to imagine significant positive and negative life events with the use of mood induction stories to compare this type of mood induction with briefer, arguably less effective task instructions used in previous research. The main aim was to assess whether additional scaling changes would be made in relation to more meaningful topics. In support of previous findings it was found that children adjusted scaling in relation to positive topics only when briefer mood induction instructions were used. This finding contradicted claims in clinical and educational literature and showed that care is needed when designing instructions for drawing tasks which are intended to be used in assessment situations.