Who-What-Where-When-Why Stories

by sejwa on June 19, 2013

During our Iowa trip, some of us played the Who-What-Where-When-Why game, in which each person has a piece of paper with “Who”, “What”, “Where”, “When”, and “Why” written on the left side of the page and each word on a different line. Each person begins by writing a phrase identifying the subject of a story next to the “Who”. Each person then folds the top part of their paper to hide their “Who” phrase and then passes their paper to the next person (usually to the left). With their new piece of paper, each person then writes a phrase for “What” the person did, then folds the paper to cover what they wrote, and so on and so forth. The result is a set of statements that often turn out to be nonsensical, but sometimes comical. Sometimes, they actually make sense.

 

Below are some of the stories that were written. As I recall, James, Emily, Becca, and I played the game.

 

Story 1

Who: The alligator

What: swept the floors, polished the furniture, and generally did all the work around the place

Where: somewhere over the rainbow

When: on that sultry summer’s afternoon

Why: because he was tired of being stereotyped as a villain and wanted to prove that he could be a superhero.

 

Story 2

Who: Gretchen

What: procured some mighty fine bacon

Where: in front of the comic book store

When: while everyone else was having fun

Why: because she read the instructions upside down.

 

Story 3

Who: Becca

What: chopped down 16 trees

Where: into the wilds of the West

When: at just the wrong time

Why: because she was freezing and just wanted to be warmer

 

Story 4

Who: The lonely pilgrim

What: ate everybody’s leftover food

Where: in Iowa

When: a couple minutes before the sun came up and you still see a small glimpse of the beautiful blue moon

Why: because the road goes ever on, and the heart of man is in the unknown.

 

Story 5

Who: Brinkley

What: stole all the blankets in the hotel room

Where: under a blanket

When: as gloaming heralded the night fires

Why: in order to get to the grocery store when the prices were low.

{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }

Audrey June 20, 2013 at 5:59 am

Hahaha! Those are good. I like the alligator one best.

Reply

Jannylynn June 20, 2013 at 9:24 am

The one about Becca just wanting to get warmer is fitting! 🙂

Reply

Emily June 20, 2013 at 11:57 am

I like the alligator one, too

Reply

James June 20, 2013 at 5:52 pm

Stealing blankets while under a blanket… is this the application of Pippin’s remark, “The closer we are to danger, the farther we are from harm,” or is Brinkley just being sneaky?

Reply

andreamegan June 23, 2013 at 2:31 pm

Those are great! I love that game. It is good for stirring up creativity.

Reply

micah June 23, 2013 at 10:23 pm

Awesome! Those really made me laugh! Thank you for sharing these!

Reply

Leave a Comment

Previous post:

Next post: