Improv for Writers, Part 1 of 3: How Improv Can Help You Write Faster, Better, and More Creatively

What's Improv?

Improv, for those who don't know, is improvisational theater. It's usually funny, although that isn't a requirement. Most of the cast of Saturday Night Live started out doing Improv. That includes people like John Belushi, Mike Myers, Tina Fey, and Amy Poehler.

Improv actors are able to write dialogue on the spot. Steve Carell, who played Dunder-Mifflin Regional Manager Michael Scott on The Office, started out in Improv, which allowed him to ad lib many of his lines on that show. Stephen Colbert of The Colbert Report also credits Improv as a major influence on his work. Drew Carey and most of the cast of the Drew Carey Show knew Improv and were able to show off their skills in several episodes. One of my favorites is an episode where they rewind a scene so that the actor who last spoke has to come up with and deliver an alternate line.  They really got to show off their creativity.

What can Improv do for writers?

Studying Improv can teach writers to think on their toes, trust their instincts, and change everything and anything at a moment's notice. In Improv there's no time for doubt. You just do it. What you come up with might be rubbish, but that's okay. Just rewind and come up with an alternate line, character, scene, or whatever. And if that's still rubbish, rewind and come up with another alternative, again and again until you find something you're happy with. It works for Tina Fey, who won a Mark Twain Award for humor and several Emmy Awards. It works for Steve Carell and Stephen Colbert. It can work for you too.

Here are some specific skills writers can learn from Improv:

Look at old things in new ways

Every story has a who (characters), what (actions), why (motivations), where (setting), when (before, during, or after), and how (style, narrative voice, or genre). Many Improv games are about taking one of these elements out and replacing it with something else. For example, if you take the who out of Cinderella and replace with a different who, you could have Cinderfella, Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister, Pygmalion, or My Fair Lady, to name just a few. Break down any old fairy tale, Shakespeare play, Biblical story, ancient myth, or other very old (pre-1900s) classic to its parts and change one element to come up with a completely new story. Rick Riordan took Greek Myths and changed the where to modern-day America to create the Percy Jackson series. It's amazing what changing just one thing can do.

Move the story forward

The two most important words to remember in Improv are "yes, and." What this means is that when someone offers you a suggestion, you take that suggestion and add something to it. The answer can never be “no,” and it can never be “yes, but.” It also can't be a simple yes. You always have to add something. You always have to be moving the story forward.

For example, if a fellow Improv actor gives you the suggestion "let's go to the movies," your answer shouldn't be "no, I'd rather stay home" or "yes, but let's go get ice cream first" or just a simple "that's a great idea." Instead it should be something like "there's a great new thriller I'd like to see."

Dig deep

In most Improv games that are performed on stage, the audience is asked to provide a suggestion, such as a genre, an occupation, a situation, a personality type, or even something as specific as a fairytale. The scene must be based on whatever suggestions you take from the audience. It's important to use the audience's suggestions as fully as possible. You can't just use or mention the suggestion once and then go off to something completely different. If, for example, you're playing Fairy Tale Court and the audience suggests Cinderella as your fairy tale, you can't just call the defendant Cinderella and ignore her cleaning, glass slippers, fairy godmother, pumpkin coach, and so on. Whatever you make your story about, dig deep. Try to explore it as fully as you can.  

Avoid a sagging middle by raising the stakes

In longer Improv games, it's important to keep raising the stakes. It keeps your audience engaged and interested—same thing as in writing.

There are two ways to raise the stakes. The first is by the main character wanting whatever it is he wants even more. The second is by giving him more obstacles.

These obstacles can be internal or external but they have to come out of whatever it is the character wants. They can’t just be random obstacles thrown at the main character. If, for example, your main character wants to ask a girl out for a date, the obstacle shouldn't be that first he has to get past a thug who's threatening to break both his legs if he doesn't pay back the money he owes. It can be that he's shy, his best friend confesses he's attracted to the girl, the girl has an overprotective dad who never likes any of his daughter's boyfriends, and a million other things that have something to do with the idea of a boy asking a girl out for a date.  

Don't underestimate your story--let it shine

Another thing writers can learn from Improv is that it helps to play things big. For example, if you ask for a character type, and the audience gives you “angry,” your character shouldn't be passive aggressive. If your character is supposed to be angry, he should be very angry. I wouldn't recommend playing everything at eleven on a scale of one to ten. (Yes, that's a deliberate This Is Spinal Tap reference, because that's Improv too.) That would probably be going overboard and it might turn off the audience. Plus, everything played at eleven make the volume irrelevant, because there's nothing to compare it to. A performance ranging between five and nine (with an occasional, brief ten or eleven) would probably be a good idea.

Trust your instincts

Most Improv games are only a few minutes long, and some can be even shorter. There's no time for doubt, so you just have to go with whatever pops into your head first. It might not make sense, but if you stick with it, you'll see there's a reason why that thing popped in your head.

In the very early years of Improv at one performance, an actor brought back a certain idea based on a suggestion long after it was offered. The audience loved it. The group asked themselves what this should be called, and someone suggested, “What about Harold?” So a “Harold” is when someone brings back an idea much later in the sketch or even in another sketch.  

There's a lesson in this for writers: if you dropped something in your story early on, there's probably a reason you did. You might not know what that reason is yet, but trust your instincts. Don't just drop something into your story, think “Well, that doesn't make any sense,” and then just forget about it. Readers will love it when you bring that stuff back. Consider it foreshadowing. That thing you dropped in might not have made much sense in the beginning, but when you bring it back, it will make perfect sense. That's a first-rate Harold. 

And if you bring something in only near the end, see if you can introduce it in the beginning. The foreshadowing will turn it from something sneaky into something brilliant. I call this a reverse Harold. You can't do this in real Improv, but as a writer you can get away with some things actors performing live in front of an audience can't. It might be cheating, but don't worry. I won't tell. 

Don't be afraid to change everything and anything

When you get to something that seems weak or ineffective--whether it's a character, piece of dialogue, or a scene--press rewind. Then rewrite that thing in a different way, or even two or three different ways. The more choices you have, the better it will be. 

Leave the audience wanting more

It's usually best to end an Improv game at a high point, because anything else after it will be downhill. The suggestion should be fully explored and whatever conflicts or questions the audience might have should be resolved in a satisfying way. Then the story should end. This is also true for the end of your story.  Leave the reader feeling satisfied but wanting more.

Now look at your own writing and ask yourself, "What can Improv do for you?"

Next week, I'll be sharing with you five Improv games you can play on your own. See you then!

"Where do you get your ideas?” 12 things a writer can use to create an infinite number of story ideas

Writers, want to have more stories ideas than you can shake a pencil at? Well, here’s a secret that will let you do just that. It’s given me more story ideas than I could ever write in a lifetime, and it can do the same for you.

Science fiction writers know that at the root of every story are two little words: “What if?” “What if we could travel into the future?”  “What if robots took over the world?” “What if robots from the future could travel to our time?” “What if?” 

But you don’t have to write science fiction to take advantage of the power of these two little words. In fact, you can use “What if?” to create stories in any genre or for any age group: from humorous fiction to thrillers and from picture books to romance novels. The only difference is that--if you aren’t writing science fiction--your “What ifs” probably won’t involve time travel or robots. 

“What if?” is really just what I call “Surprise” in my House of Funny formula. It’s all about taking something and looking at it in a new, unexpected way, a way that asks, “What if?” 

There’s an infinite number of things you can ask “What if” about. Here is a list of 12 to get you started:

1.       Old stories--Old myths or legends, fairy tales, Shakespeare’s plays, nursery rhymes, jokes,  and so on make great setups. Just make sure they’re really old—like at least 100-years old—so you don’t infringe on the original creator’s copyright. Percy Jackson and the Olympians came from Greek mythology combined with the question: “What if these stories were real and took place today?” My book, Dan Quixote: Boy of Nuevo Jersey, came from asking the same question about the classic novel Don Quixote.

2.       The news--In print, online or on TV, it doesn’t matter how you get the news, only what you do with it. My YA romantic ghost story, Ride of Your Life, was inspired by a true event: the Great Adventure theme park Haunted Castle fire, which killed eight people. I wanted to give that event a happy ending, and that inspired my story. My picture book, Click the Dog, was inspired by a news item about a dog that ate something strange. Of course, when you base your story on real events it’s necessary to change all names, quotes, details and the like, so you don’t write something that might be considered defamation of character. (That’s why all works of fiction have a disclaimer like “Any similarity to any person living or dead is completely coincidental.”)

3.       Anything you would change—one of the wonderful things about being a writer is that you have the power to change anything you like. What if you had told off that bully? What if you could solve a murder? Write a story with a character who does just that, and see what happens. Read a really awful book? How would you completely change it? Mahatma Gandhi said, “We must become the change we want to see in the world.” Well, as a writer you can write the change you want to see in the world.

4.       Fears—What are you afraid of? Fears make great topics for stories, particularly horror stories. Think about what’s the worst thing that can happen, and make it happen to your character. But make sure you find some sort of resolution to your story. No one wants to feel invested in a character only to find out the character died without dying for something. I started Why My Love Life Sucks: The Legend of Gilbert the Fixer by asking myself what a teenage super geek's worst nightmare would be. Getting stuck with a gorgeous girl who only want to be his platonic best friend forever? Yeah, that's it.

5.       Dreams—These could be actual dreams, but they could also be aspirations. Supposedly, the story of Frankenstein came from an actual dream. But if there’s something you want to do but haven’t or can’t, writing might be a good way to experience it through your characters. They could be famous, read minds, predict the future, or fly for you. So ask yourself, “What if?”

6.       Science—It doesn’t matter which science, from archeology to zoology, there are story possibilities in there. Archeological digs reveal stories of actual people, but archeologists themselves can have stories too. Indiana Jones was an archeologist (sort of), and he is one of Hollywood’s greatest heroes. When it comes to zoology, you could write a story about an animal or a person’s relationship with an animal, or you can create a story based on an animal society in the past, present or future. You can even mix animal qualities with human qualities, like Brian Jacques does in his Redwall series. Most science fiction has its roots in some kind of science, but science can be a part of any genre. 

  

7.       History—The past is full of amazing stories. Child emperors? Parents trusting their children to strangers in another country to save them? Tribes nearly wiped out by strange new diseases? Empires rising and then falling? History has them all. The simplest “What if?” to ask when writing historical fiction is “What if I were there?” And if you don’t want to write historical fiction, there’s always Steampunk, fantasy based on history, science fiction that mixes the past and the future, and so much more.  

8.       Movies , TV and comic books--When you watch a TV show, try to imagine how you would do it. What if you were the writer? I’ve been writing episodes in my head since I was a kid, and it’s fun. This is more of an exercise than something you can use to create your own story, because the characters on a TV show belong to that show’s creator. But maybe you’ll create a character who can be spun off into a new series, something completely yours. And if you ever find yourself on The Tonight Show, you’ll have what you want to say all prepared.  

9.       Your life--Some people like to say that every writer’s first novel is autobiographical. (If that’s true, I’m a magical storyteller, because Toren the Teller’s Tale was the first novel I wrote.) But you don’t have to write an autobiography or something semi-autobiographical to turn pieces of your life into stories. If something deeply affects you, there’s a good chance it will deeply affect your readers too.  

10.   People around you--When I was little and my mom would take me shopping, she’d frequently sigh and tell me, “Shevi, we’re shopping for clothes, not people.” Even back then I liked to observe and make up stories about what I saw. There’s no shortage of story ideas at a mall. Anywhere you can find people, you can find something to turn into a story.   

11.   Photos, paintings, or other works of visual art--In a way, this is like using the people around you as inspiration; but when it comes to visual art, the artist has already chosen the focus of your story. It’s whatever is in the photo, painting, or other piece of art. Ursula Le Guin started writing her award-winning science-fiction novel The Left Hand of Darkness with just a single image in her head, the image of two people and a sled. She asked herself who these people were, how they got there, and where they were going. Questions like this can turn almost any image with people into stories.

12.   Mash-ups—As I mentioned in a previous blog post, conflict is an essential part of a good story, and one of the easiest ways to achieve it is by putting together things that don’t go together.  You could use two conflicting characters, two conflicting desires, or one character who conflicts with his or her world. You can also combine genres or mediums in new and original ways. There are already novels in verse, eBooks with animation, and books written like email correspondences. Or you can also take an old classic or fairy tale and put it into a different genre, like Jasper Fforde’s The Big Over Easy. Or you could take a serious work and make it funny, which is the essence of parody, like the movie Airplane!, Mad Magazine, any Weird Al Yankovic song.   

So the next time you hear an old story, watch the news, observe people at the mall or on the street, or look at an image of people interacting, ask yourself “What if?”  And if you think the answer holds some potential, write it down. Pretty soon you’ll have more story ideas than you can shake a pencil at too.

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Oh, dear. I forgot one, and it's a biggie:

13. Word play--I often come up with great story ideas just by playing with words. I have an idea for a middle-grade science-fiction series that came from the expression "a stitch in time." Can't believe I left that out. Are there any others I'm missing?