🖋️ The Dictation

Who plays who

• A — The Writer: you dictate the story out loud and you can change it at any word.
• B — The Performer: you act out exactly what you are told, as you are told it.
• A leads Acts 1–3 by dictating. B leads Act 4 by taking the pen — the performer gets to finish the story.

What you need

• A notebook or a page, or just your voice if you prefer the tightrope
• A pen or pencil, as a prop to hold or to hand over
• A chair, a bed, or a floor — whatever the story says the character is standing on
• One plain sheet or robe, because a dictation tends to involve costume changes
• A timer, so nobody dictates for ever

Act 1 — 🕯️ Setup

A sits with the pen and B stands in the middle of the room, ready to be told what to do. The first line is small on purpose. Whatever A says next, B has to actually do. That is the whole architecture: one voice writes, the other body performs.

Beats

• A dictates one simple opening sentence and B performs it exactly, no improvising.
• The opening is a character, a place and a first action. Nothing sexual yet.
• A has to say each sentence out loud, clearly, before B does anything.

Lines to say

• "She stands in the doorway. She doesn't come in yet."
• "He puts both hands on the back of the chair and waits."
• "She turns to face him. She says nothing."

Act 2 — 🔥 Build

The story warms up and the sentences get closer to the two of them. A writes B toward the chair, the bed, the window, and B performs each instruction faithfully because that is the deal. The dictation is now describing things both of them want.

Beats

• A mixes instruction and description: what B does, and what the character is feeling while doing it.
• Every third sentence has to be something B would not have chosen alone.
• B still does not improvise. If it is not dictated, it does not happen.

Lines to say

• "He crosses the room. He doesn't ask permission."
• "She lifts her chin. She wants the next line to be worse."
• "He takes off the sheet and folds it. Slowly. She watches."

Act 3 — ⚡ Escalate

The sentences stop describing and start commanding, and the performer is close enough now to hear the writer breathe between them. A begins to write about the writer instead of the character, in the third person, which is a very thin disguise and both of them know it. The story is about the two of them now, and the pen is still in A's hand.

Beats

• A dictates first contact explicitly and B performs it exactly, no more and no less.
• The scenario moves to wherever the story said — bed, floor, chair — and stays there.
• A keeps writing out loud the whole time, even past the point where the words are hard to say.

Lines to say

• "He puts his mouth where she told him to."
• "She says, out loud, what she has been thinking. He does not answer."
• "He is not allowed to stop until the sentence ends."

Act 4 — 💥 Climax

A hands the pen over. The performer takes it, and from now on B dictates — the story gets finished by the person who has been acting it out. Whoever has been performing all night finally gets to write the ending.

Beats

• B takes the pen and dictates the last part of the story, including an instruction to A.
• For the first time, A performs. The roles reverse completely.
• The story ends when B says it ends, out loud, in the story's voice.

Lines to say

• "Now it's my page. You listen."
• "She says stop talking and start moving. He does."

Act 5 — 🤍 Aftercare

The pen is on the floor and the story is finished. There is no more being told what to do, which after an hour of dictation takes a moment to get used to.

Beats

• Close the notebook, or say out loud that the story is over, as an actual closing event.
• Name the roles goodbye: "no more writer", "no more character".
• Water, and one scene each that you would want written again.

Lines to say

• "Out of character — the turn at the end was the best bit."
• "I want to be the one with the pen next time."
• "That sentence about the chair. Keep that one."

Aftercare

Close the book, or say "the story is over" out loud, and put the pen away together — the dictation needs an actual ending or it keeps running in the head.,Water, food, and one sentence each about what you would write again.,Whoever performed all night should be told plainly that nothing was ever made to happen to them; every line was theirs to refuse.

Ground rules and consent

• The performer may refuse any sentence at any time — "Inkstand" stops the dictation mid-line and the page is closed.
• The writer writes for one partner only. There is no audience and nothing is recorded or saved to be read later.
• Whatever is dictated, the performer's body has the final edit. The stop is real; the story is not.
• The writer must write things the performer actually wants to perform. A sentence nobody wants to act is a bad sentence.

For the thinking behind it, Blindfold play is the long version.

Frequently asked