
Writers often take ideas from somewhere or someone else and build on them. Or we write in response to something we see or hear or smell. But what if we found another writer with whom to create a written diptych? Each person write the beginning of a story, exchange them, and then the other person finishes it up. Or two poems, or the first 5 minutes of a 10-minute stage script. There are several variations on this for writing. One example - which can be really fun, especially with a medium size group (around 10 people) - is the "exquisite corpse" exercise : each person writes down an opening sentence from the same word prompt. Then all the paper is passed to the right (or left, doesn't matter) and the second person adds a line. Then person two folds the paper backwards just so the first sentence is not visible and the paper is passed to the next person. This continues until you are back at the beginning (one group I did this with, each person put a symbol they would recognize in the bottom right corner of the paper so they'd know, since the first line is no longer visible). Each person turns the paper down so that only their sentence is available for the next person to work with. When it is done, go around the group and read the creations from beginning to end. This is a great group cohesion exercise and can be a lot of fun with lively and wild stories.
Diptych by Serena Barton, IEA (top) + Dawna Bemis, NEW (bottom, "What If They Find Out", 36" x 18"