4/ Story Pass

One cannot discuss the exquisite corpse without following up with a similar exercises, this time in fiction. My students have generally enjoyed this particular exercise:

You can give them a premise, or not. But start a story and work on a timer. For every three, five, varied minutes have them pass the paper along and pick up where the story left off. Sometimes I have them start with a line: "It was dark in the house; I heard a door slam." It's interesting to see which directions the stories go in.

For high schoolers, depending on the age group, the stories can get a bit ridiculous, but it's a nice activity if taken moderately seriously. Reading aloud is always fun at the end of this one.