Writing games are tricks, exercises, things to try to get your writing brain in the mood. I find them useful when a story's giving me trouble - I can't think of a way out of the corner, or I can't think of a corner to get into, or I'm just not feeling in the right mood to write that story - as well as generating new ideas, and just keeping my writing-mind in shape. And on the plus side, they're usually fun to try, and you can end up with the germs of some great little stories.

Three's a crowd

What's to the left of you, right now? Some paperwork? Your coffee? A plaster wall? Whatever it is, that's your topic. You're going to write at least three people having an argument (or a general discussion, but arguments tend to be easier, and more fun) about that topic. The paperwork isn't done. The coffee-pot is never refilled, or it's always refilled with the wrong coffee. The plaster needs to be painted blue, not yellow. Three people are about to have a flaming row over this, but that's the easy bit.

The trick is - you're not allowed to use any speech tags. No 'said', 'muttered', 'yelled', 'replied', 'screamed', 'snorted' or 'expostulated'. Nothing. You have to indicate who is speaking just using grammatical indicators (a new person speaking or acting starts a new line) and speech mannerisms - what they say, and how they say it. And you'll need to do this - two people in an argument can take turns. Three people can't. So you'll need to construct things very carefully to make it clear who's speaking.

Make the argument a silly, vindictive or vicious as you like, and feel free to let the topic ramble, or have people dredge up past grievances as ammunition. You just can't use speech tags.

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