On hot summer nights, we gather to play with story.
Every game in this collection has been designed with the creative storyteller in mind.
Whether you like working with fiction, memoir, or creative nonfiction, expect to have fun stretching your storytelling skills.
Writers from all genres and all levels of proficiency and experience are encouraged to take a chance with these unique storytelling games.
Game Nights!
All Summer Long
Where: Julie’s Coffee & Tea Garden, Alameda
When: 600-900pm Tuesdays, June 4-August 20
What to Bring: Notepad, pen, and sense of storytelling adventure
Cost: $8 for the coach + two items from the menu
(coach fee waived for writers who have completedThe Storytellers Club workshop)
THE STORYTELLERS CLUB WORKSHOPGame Nights are a fun and engaging way to experiment with prompts, writing style, tone, and genre. The goal is to allow inspiration to come from unexpected sources and to enjoy a space where you’re expected to practice imperfection, embrace strange new ideas that work, and let go of ideas that just don’t have potential.
At the end of the night, you could leave the game table with a solid story idea, the beginnings of a new novel, a sense of accomplishment, a grin of satisfaction, and a bunch of cool writers to call on when you want to write again.
Game Nights are appropriate for writers of fiction, non-fiction, memoir, and creative non-fiction. Writers and storytellers are welcome from any genre, at any level of proficiency and experience.
What you do with your fledgling story idea after Game Night is up to you. To help you stay connected to your new idea and mold it into something more, the To Live & Write community offers several ways to keep you going, including free Write Ins, Write Alongs, Proof of Writes, and our monthly lit night, Alameda Shorts.
Space is limited to eight writers (including me). Book now to reserve your seat!
Dare to make your writing real.
Storytelling Games
The Game of the Night is chosen at the table with the help of the Wheel of Games
WHEEL OF GAMES
Never Have I Ever
Confession-based inspiration. Borrow from a fellow writers’s past exploits. Here’s your chance to play with story possibilities by stepping into someone else’s wild streak, courage, or silliness to put yourself inside the experience.
Hold My Beer
A playful way to up the ante, jump right into a tricky scene, and write the action at speed. Practice letting backstory and exposition wait for a minute while you get to the point in your scene and play with the extreme.
Hopscotch
Getting from here to there without making it awkward. Practice moving through time, across space, and from POV to POV. Sharpen your storytelling skills for the sake of the reader and the story.
Kick The Can
Start a story with one plan in mind, then quickly adjust when it gets kicked in another direction. Plans change again, and you’re wondering, what happens now? Fun, that’s what happens now.
Operator
Start a story and pass it on. Pick up another story in the making and add your own spin to it. Pass it on again. Practice playing with genre and voice, letting go of what the story was supposed to be for the sake what it can be.
Simon Says
Writing your way into corners and out again, thanks to taking direction from other writers who want to see what you can do with story. Return the favor. Practice being open to possibility.
Truth Or Dare
Personal Narrative that can be disguised as fiction, if necessary. Using a selection of Magic Words, you fast write a thought, feeling, or memory. Then, you choose to explore the truth on a deeper level or dare yourself to write how you wish you had handled things.
Risk
Explore a situation or experience from multiple points of view, beginning with yours. There’s your experience, then there’s what the dog saw, what the cat thought, and what your neighbor said to your mom.
Sorry Not Sorry
Evil has a POV. Hurt people hurt people. Natural disasters aren’t personal. Let’s get inside the opposing force to explore what makes it tick. What does it really want? Let’s play with what it’s like to be the bad guy and what it takes to overcome them.
Show & Tell
Show, tell, write, and share. The smallest items can hold the greatest stories. This game is about imagination and story stimulation using a fellow writer’s treasured possession. Practice tapping into your imagination and memories to find story in everyday objects.
I Spy
Test your ability to show without any telling. No weak verbs or adjectives allowed. Practice observation and creating descriptions that tug on the senses while touching memory and sparking imagination.
Red Rover
Hyper-local fan fiction. Quickly create compelling characters and send one over to another writer to incorporate in their story. Have them send over one of theirs. Practice playing with tropes + unique characters.
Fast Freytag
Fast write a rough story outline from the first scene to the last, using Freytag’s Pyramid as your guide. This game practices the fine art of finding your way to finishing a story outline and enjoying the results.
Inside Out
Fast write a rough story outline from the middle scene out in both directions, with Freytag’s Pyramid in mind. This game practices the fine art of not getting stuck in the middle of the book you’re writing.
Pick Up Sticks
Fast write a rough story outline from the last scene to the first, using Freytag’s Pyramid in reverse. This game practices the fine art of making sure your ending makes sense from the beginning.
Paint By Numbers
The players provide the story elements and decide where they appear – Act 1, Act 2, etc. Each writer then gets to work bringing the details alive in their own voice, style, and flair for drama, romance, or humor.
Clue
Choose from among a pile of characters, a set of activities, and a list of locations. Without spelling it out to us, reveal each of your selections in a scene. Make us puzzle it out, but don’t leave us in the dark. Play with subtext & stereotypes.
Operation
Begin with a scene that is 90% backstory. Bit by bit, remove the parts the scene can live without. Pass after pass, drill down to the life blood of the piece until you’re at bare bones, then fatten it up again with new vitality.
Formula 1
Everyone gets the same characters, the same setting, the same plot points, etc. And yet, no two stories are ever the same. Broaden your imagination and open yourself to possibilities.
Gold Digger
Establish a scene and play with it a few times, modifying character interactions based on different motivations. Practice writing conflict, manipulation, and subtlety.
Treasure Hunt
Begin with a prompt that triggers a memory loaded with emotion. Throw all everything on the page. Isolate the gem and rewrite. Isolate the gem in that version. Rewrite. Repeat.
