Agreement and listening
One Word Story
A group tells a single coherent story contributing one word each, with no pauses and no ungrammatical sentences.
Also known as: Word at a Time Story
How to run it
- Sit or stand in a circle.
- The first player says one word. The next adds one word. Continue around.
- Sentences must be grammatical and the story must progress — no stalling on adjectives.
- When a sentence ends, the next player begins the following one.
- Aim for a story with a beginning, a complication and an ending, then stop.
What it teaches
Surrendering authorship completely. Nobody can steer it, so everybody must accept the sentence they are in rather than the one they wanted.
Coaching notes
If the story becomes a chain of "and then", ask for a full stop. The discipline of ending a sentence forces the group to commit to what it has built.
Where it usually goes wrong. Players try to hijack the story toward their own idea, which produces a story about nothing.
Related reading: yes, and, listening and the second line.
See it played
We do not link individual videos we have not watched end to end, so this is a search rather than a recommendation: One Word Story on YouTube. Quality varies enormously — prefer recordings from working theatres over tutorial channels.