Got our book club to finally stop talking over each other with one simple rule change

My book club in Austin had this problem where we'd spend 45 minutes debating the same character's motives while skipping half the discussion questions. Last month I tried something different after reading about it online. Instead of letting anyone jump in whenever, we started each meeting with 5 minutes of silent writing time where everyone jots down their top 3 thoughts about the book. Then we go around the circle and each person shares one thought before anyone can respond. It felt super awkward at first, like we were back in 3rd grade. But somehow it cut our arguments in half and we actually finished all our discussion points for once. The quiet people finally got to talk without being interrupted. Has anyone else tried a speaking order or writing exercise to calm down their group?

2 comments

2 Comments

tessa36828d ago

That whole "five minutes of silent writing time" thing really caught my attention because it makes me wonder if the real issue isn't just people talking over each other but something deeper about how we process books differently. Some people need time to let a thought settle before they can share it, especially if they're more on the quiet side or if the book had a lot of layers. I bet that writing exercise also helps people remember their own ideas instead of getting swayed by the loudest person in the room right away.

jamienguyen28d ago

Push back on that though, sometimes that quiet time just lets people overthink and write down something they don't actually believe just to fill the page. The loud people are gonna be loud anyway, and now you've just added a buffer to slow down anyone who actually did have a good instinct to share right away.