Passage of the Buck.
Pass the buck. Write a story. Four words at a time.
A dollar travels from person to person through PayPal. Each holder adds exactly four words to the story it carries, then passes it on.
Start a story · $2 · Join a story · free
How the buck moves
- Write the foreword: release a buck and write its first four words.
- Add four content words. Small connecting words ride free.
- Pass the buck by email, or release it to the wild, a public list where any stranger can claim it.
There's no page limit. One buck could pass through ten thousand hands: forty thousand words by strangers who never met, four at a time.
Stories to follow
- Wendell the Damp · FWP-0002 · Demo history
- Valentine the Crumpled · FWP-0001 · Demo history
A few words before you go
What is Four Word Pass?
A story written by strangers and carried by a dollar. The dollar moves from person to person through PayPal. Each holder adds four words to the story, then passes it on.
Why four words?
Enough to matter, few enough that anyone can write them in a minute. You add exactly four content words; small connecting words such as the, a, and, to, and of ride free, so grammar still works. The word counter checks your line before you pass it on.
Does it cost anything to play?
Joining a story is free: the dollar comes to you. Starting or forking a story is a $2 checkout: $1 travels with the story and $1 supports the platform. During the sandbox beta, checkout and payouts use PayPal test money; no real money changes hands.
What does “released to the wild” mean?
Instead of naming the next holder, you can release a buck to the wild. It waits on the public Wild page, and the first person to claim it gets the dollar and writes the next four words. If they don't write within 24 hours, it wanders back to the wild.
Do I need an account or an app?
No Four Word Pass account or download is required. You read stories in your browser, and a private email link is your key to write. Add a pen name if you want credit, or follow a story by email. Starting a story uses the PayPal sandbox test card shown at checkout, so you don't need a PayPal account either.
Does AI write the story?
No. People write the story. AI can suggest words, which you take or ignore, and it plays the bill: a personality, a diary, passport stamp art, and reminders. All of it is labeled and kept apart from the story. The only AI words that ever join a story are a labeled closing, written if a bill sits still for 14 days.
Why PayPal?
Because the dollar is how the story moves. Each pass is a PayPal payout to the next holder, so every hop has a PayPal receipt behind it, and every dollar in and out is public in the open books.
How does a story end?
When its creator says so: the person who started it writes the finale, up to twelve words. If a bill stops moving for 14 days, it writes its own eulogy instead. Don't like where a story went? Fork it from any earlier hop and take it somewhere else.
Sandbox beta: checkout and payouts use PayPal test money. No real money changes hands.