88 101 Activities for Teaching Creativity and Problem Solving
101 Activities for Teaching Creativity and Problem Solving.Copyright © 2005 by John Wiley &
Sons, Inc. Reproduced by permission of Pfeiffer, an Imprint of Wiley. http://www.pfeiffer.com
15. A Likely Story
Background
Have you ever wanted to write the Great American Novel (GAN), but didn’t think you
could? Well, now is your chance. Even if we don’t consider ourselves to be writers, we
can compose brief, fantasy stories. We then can use our stories as the basis for our GANs.
Writing, like painting and sculpting, is a creative activity. All artists use a variety of
stimuli to craft their creative products using free association. Some of these stimuli come
from the product itself. Thus, an artist might draw a shape that stimulates another shape,
which prompts a third and so forth. Creative writing works much the same way. A cre-
ative phrase, character description, or plot element might suggest other corresponding
thoughts that, in turn, suggest even more. In addition, creating a story about a problem
forces us to consider new information and perspectives that might have gone unnoticed.
Objectives
- To help participants generate as many creative ideas as possible
- To help participants learn how to use the activities to generate ideas
Participants
Small groups of four to seven people each
Materials, Supplies, and Equipment
- For each group: markers, two flip charts, and masking tape for posting flip-chart
sheets - For each participant: one sheet each of three different colors of sticking dots
(^1 ⁄ 2 ” diameter) and one pad of 4 x 6 Post-it®Notes
Handout
- A Likely Story Handout
Time
90 minutes
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