Story Trees- Without Using Technology

While in field, I had my students do an activity somewhat like Story Trees, except without using technology.  I gave my students a prompt and had them write the start of a fictional story for one minute.  Then, I had them pass their papers to the student behind them.  All students would read the story that they were given and continue to write for one minute.  I had the students continue this process until they got their own papers back.  Again, they were given one minute to write an ending to the story that they had started.  The students had so much fun with this activity.  Nearly all of the students wanted to read their stories aloud, although we didn't have time.  I have never seen students get so excited about writing, which is why if feel that informal writing is so important.  Because of my experience with this activity, I feel that students would really enjoy writing with Story Trees (using Webspiration) if they had the technology.  If not, this is an alternative activity that they would also enjoy!