Galactic Activity 9

This is a whole club activity and can be run in several ways. It involves each person adding a word, line or paragraph to a story begin by one member. The story must stay “on theme” and be logical.

Activity 9 – Continuous Story

Duration: X mins – depends on the variation chosen – but can we get some sort of guidelines for this? 3 minutes per person? Or 3 minutes in total if 2 people?
Applicable Streams: Personal Challenge, Humour

Aim

In this activity you are aiming to:

Produce a coherent story (i.e. one which makes sense), building on existing or emerging ideas.

Objectives

To do this, you will need to keep the following objectives in mind:

  1. Add sentences / notions / concepts / elements which add to the story.
  2. Additions should build on, without changing, and continue the basic premise of the story

The Why…

You may be in a think tank or a brainstorming session where you will need to build on the ideas of others, taking an initial idea to (a) its logical conclusion or (b) one of many possible conclusions.

Builds skills of:

  • Listening skills.
  • Quick thinking.
  • Linking ideas.

Where do I start?

If you’re the first person to start the story, create a context first so that the audience (and other speaker) knows where the story is set, what time it is, who is present, and what is happening generally. If you’re not speaking, listen closely so that you have all the details required to carry on the story when it’s your turn.

The How

Specific guidelines on how to tackle this activity.

  • 2 or 3 (or more) people tell a coherent story with each person adding one sentence at a time.
  • Listen to what the person (or persons) speaking before you is saying so that your addition means the story remains coherent.
  • Focus on the direction of the story so that your contribution builds or leads it towards a meaningful conclusion.

Variations:

  • Number of participants: vary with the number of people who are involved in telling the story – you could involve everyone in the room.
  • Time bound: instead of each person contributing one sentence each, make the contribution time bound – ie – 30 seconds or 60 seconds – before the next person continues the story. In this variation, the Chair can call TIME at each interval (by ringing a bell, or clicking on the desk), and the person talking must stop immediately so that the other person can take over.

Tips and traps

TRAPS:

  • The temptation to just add anything which pops into your head, which doesn’t make sense. Humour is good, but the objective is to create a coherent story.

TIPS:

  • Listen carefully and jot down details if necessary so that you can relate back to them while you’re telling the story.
  • If you’re the second speaker and the first person didn’t provide enough context (what is happening, who is there, where the story is taking place etc), fill in the blanks when it’s your turn to take over.
  • When you know your time is coming close to an end, ask a rhetorical question like ‘… and do you know WHY he started running?’ so that the next speaker has a lead to run with (pardon the pun).

Guidelines for Program Director: