Storytelling Exercise: Suddenly…

Purpose

This is a simple storytelling exercises that forces the delegates to think of a new direction for a story every time they want to contribute to it.

Objective

Continue from the story told by someone else by saying “suddenly” and then complete it as necessary.

What You Need

• A timer

Setup

• Get the delegates to sit in a circle.
• Ask for a volunteer to start the exercise.
• Ask the person to tell a story for about 30 seconds.
• Next, the person on the left should say “suddenly” and then continue with their own story for 30 seconds while extending the original story.
• The story telling continues while everyone contributes their own part and prefixing it with a “suddenly”.
• Continue until everyone has contributed to the main story.

Timing

Explaining the Exercise: 2 minutes

Activity: 30 seconds per person * 10 delegates = 5 minutes

Group Feedback: 5 minutes

Discussion

What did you think of the main story? Was it easy to change the direction every time? How creative was this process in coming up with new turns that made the story more dynamic or dramatic?

Variations

You can change the pace by adjusting the time available to tell each part of the story. Use 15 seconds per part and two rounds to double the number of turns in the story and also make the exercise feel fast paced. 

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