Playfulness: what appears at first glance to be ‘just a game’ can be the start of a new way of writing. We have been thinking about activities and games that can be a part of becoming a writer.
I am fond of this activity because of its inventiveness and the likelihood of humour and surprise and, sometimes, a way of thinking that is unexpected and intriguing.
Give everyone two slips of paper.
On the first, everyone writes a list of questions, say five or six. Number each one.
Then, write five or six answers. First time round, you may want to write the answers to the questions you have written. Later you may simply write a list of answers from any question in your head. You might wish to dictate the order and type of question openers that you use: where; who; why; how; what; when. Or you might agree to write only one kind of question: why? why? why? how? how? how?
Work in pairs. One person asks their questions. The other person gives the answer they have written to the corresponding number. Then they swap round.
Or you could do this as a group: one person asks, say, question five. Someone else gives their answer number five.
You will want to talk about questions and the kind of answers that they invite. Some questions are closed, and seem to expect a very particular answer, others are more fanciful, or can have many answers. Once you get going with the questions and answers, you will start to see how you can answer in a more unexpected way.
How old are you? Could be answered directly: seven, or seven years two months and five days or it could be answered using different measurements: younger than my mother, older than my hair, the same age as my heart…
You might want to write a poem with your own questions and answers. Playing the game first is likely to make you think about more surprising and interesting combinaions of questions and answers.
Writing Box 