The prompt this week was a sort of round-robin of serial writing. Done as a group, two prompts were offered to choose from:

The smell was familiar and touched a deep place in my heart.

It was a dark and still night. The noise outside didn’t sound like the wind.

The first person chose one and wrote that down and continued for 2 minutes, then the paper switched to the person next to them for another two minutes of writing, continuing from whatever the first person started, then on to the next and next. If you have eight people in the group, eight stories will circulate through. Allow the first person to end the story when it circles around back to them, then read each story aloud to see where each went.

This technique could be done in the following ways if you are not part of a writing group.

• Email: If you have a few writing friends, even one other person, do this with them, emailing the exchange back and forth and see where each takes the story.
• Social Media: Either part of a social media online writing group or to your followers, explain the prompt and ask everyone to add a line in series, and see where they take the story.
• Family or friends: This doesn’t have to be with writers only. Gather a group of friends or family members and set a timer for two minutes and circle the stories around.
• Alone: Write for two minutes on day one and leave the story (saving it if on the computer). Return the following day and add two minutes more, and keep going until you’ve completed this for a week or month, whatever time period you wish. Or do this once a week for a couple months, allowing time to pass between attempts.