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The discussion guide that saved our monthly meeting last Tuesday
Our group of 9 kept arguing about the same chapter in 'The Night Circus' for 40 minutes, going in circles on the ending. I tried printing out character maps and timelines, but nobody used them. Then I wrote 5 simple questions on index cards, one for each major twist, and we passed them around in order. Everybody had to answer their card before anyone else could speak, and it cut our debate time in half. Has anyone else tried structured question prompts to keep a book club from derailing?
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thea_bell6d ago
The bit about passing cards in order is the real winner here, I think. Once you force every single person to answer before the next one speaks, it kills that whole "loudest voice wins" thing that always poisons our group too. We tried a similar trick where we each wrote one question about the chapter on a sticky note and threw them in a hat, then drew and answered them one by one. It worked way better than any map or timeline because people had to commit to their own take before they could argue with someone else's. The only catch is you have to keep an eye on the clock, since one person can still ramble for ten minutes if they're not nudged along.
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