rm | Phoenix Rising Workshop proposal

Using Improv Techniques to Improve Your Writing

Summary:

Participants will be led through a series of improvisational acting exericses which will then be used to address and solve specific challenges in fanfiction writing. Exercises will focus on Being Specific, Accepting Gifts and Understanding Status in both generalized and Harry Potter contexts. Participants should wear comfortable clothes and be prepared to move around; all exercises can accommodate the differently-abled. No previous acting experience is required.

Abstract:

Fiction writing and improv have lots in common. Both are about solving problems, discovering details and revealing characters within a set of given parameters. Anyone who has ever written a story knows, however, that translating the specificity of the ideas in our head to words on the page can be a challenge. Characters may seem unwilling to cooperate or are avoidant of difficult issues or scenes. Sometimes an image is so clear in our minds, we may not convey it as precisely as we could to our readers. At other times we may have spent so much time with a character, we forget to explain their motivations – or, when writing a more unfamiliar character, we're not sure how to look at the world through their eyes.

Improvisation is a fantastic way to learn to solve these and other writing challenges. After a brief warm-up, workshop participants will be led through three exercises. Afterwards, a group discussion of each exercise will tie the improv work in with specific strategies for improving one's writing.

Exercise 1: Accepting Gifts

Participant 1 reaches into an invisible magic closet and selects a gift for Participant 2. Participant 1 offers the invisible object to Participant 2 and says, "I have a gift for you."

Participant 2 accepts and names the gift. "Thank you, I've always wanted a ____________" Regardless of the original intentions of Participant 1, there is no wrong name for the gift.

Participant 1 responds: "I thought you could use it to ___________________"

In this exercise participants learn to accept given information and move forward with it, a valuable skill for advancing plot and for working with collaborators. Participants will work both roles and receive feedback from the group.

Exercise 2: Status

A Participant is appointed Ruler.

The other Participants are the Subjects of the Ruler. One by one, they approach the ruler to offer news or gifts or to make requests. The Ruler may accept or reject gifts, grant or ignore requests and/or order the execution of the Subject (Participants who play executed Subjects reenter the game as a new Subject). Subjects may be assigned specific tasks.

Here participants learn how different social status levels interact. They also learn about portraying character motivation with consistency. We'll talk about how these issues relate to the Harry Potter world, including blood, house, and student/faculty status. The exercise will then be repeated in an HP context with a new Participant as Ruler.

Exercise 3: Being Specific

Here specificity becomes our focus as we bring individual elements of the earlier exercises together. Participants will work in groups. Each Participant will choose out of a hat a paper listing a character from Harry Potter. Next, they will choose, from another hat, an objective. They will not share this information. Finally, the Facilitator will select the location of the scene. Each scene will be four minutes as Participants try to stay true to the constraints while also achieving their objectives. Afterwards scenes will be discussed by the group.

So, more news to come in on or before December 1. I _really_ hope I get to do this. Not only will it be utterly hysterically fun, but I really get a kick out of teaching and playing.