authorajparker

[authorajparker]

Collecting books is great until you have to move all of them at once and realize that every one of the little bastards weigh about as much as a brick and collectively have the mass of a neutron star

[authorajparker]

What improv classes taught me about writing

Feel the emotion, and you will find the action

Sometimes when you’re in a rut with where to go or what to say next, there is one obvious place to look: your feelings. Often when we don’t know what we’re doing in a scene, it’s because we haven’t connected with our emotions.

Cooking pancakes excitedly is going to look much different than cooking pancakes angrily. Whereas, if you’re cooking pancakes blandly, your audience will have a hard time caring. Where is the buy-in? I feel much more invested in a character drawing a smiley face in a pancake then one staring blankly at their delicious breakfast.

I’ve found this point has helped me tap into how my characters will respond to events in the story. Are they feeling sad their plans were upended? What do they choose to do with that sadness? Perhaps they isolate themselves, or pick a fight with another character. There are so many ways emotions can influence behavior. Finding that emotion will help you find the action.

Respond from the top of your intelligence

Simply put, what is the most realistic thing that would happen next? If someone asks you, “Hey, do you want a hot dog?,” you’re most likely not going to say, “Did you see that alien invasion last week?” (Look, I’m not saying it wouldn’t happen in an improv scene, but I’m saying it probably wouldn’t happen in your novel).

This is what we call “crazy town,” when too many improbable things start to happen at once. If too many new, strange things are occurring suddenly, with no skepticism from your main character, we are in crazy town. What feels like the most natural response, the most natural next step? If you have to force it, that’s a red flag.

There are what we call “horizontal” and “vertical” moves in improv. Your horizontal moves are “Yes, and…” where you bring a brand new detail into the scene. Vertical moves are your “Yes, because…” where you build off what is currently happening by explaining why it’s happening.

Question, question, question

This is one of the core tenets in improv. It’s also what draws some of the biggest laughs from the audience. One of our constant warm-up drills is simply repeating back what the other person has said to us.

In a scene, we want to repeat the information and question it. (“Ugh, I forgot to wear socks today.” “You forgot to wear socks today?!” “Yes, I forgot to wear socks today!” “Why did you forget to wear socks today?”)

Your characters need to question things that are out of place. Why is this happening? Who is this person? How am I feeling? What can I do next? If something is obviously wrong and your character is ignoring it, you’re going to lose your audience’s trust. Top of your intelligence!

If you think it’s time to cut a scene, it’s probably time to cut the scene

One of my pet peeeeeeves in improv is when a scene goes on too long. It’s boring, we’ve lost the plot, and my mind has drifted off. People are talking just to talk, which does their scene partner a disservice by either distracting from what they were trying to accomplish or overshadowing their role in the scene.

I think that can be super true for novels, too. I am a chronic underwriter, so take this point with a grain of salt, but I abide by the advice that every decision in your novel must have a purpose. Maybe you’ve heard the advice to cut the first and last paragraph of your chapter. Perhaps that confuses the plot too much, but the great thing about a keyboard is that Command Z exists. (Pointing out these retroactive cuts or changes in improv is often where the comedy exists, so that’s a place acting and writing differ greatly. One you can reverse course much easier!)

All this to say, it’s okay to cut a scene early. Probably, actually, more interesting, too. A good rule of thumb is that if you’re bored, your audience is probably bored.

Look around, look around

(Aren’t you so happy to be alive right now?) Okay, Hamilton sing-along aside, when you’re in a rut during a scene, ask yourself, “What else is in the room with me right now?” You might find something surprising, like a cool gadget or a crooked chair that your character can interact with. You might find an odd smell or an interesting sound off stage.

This is your five senses typa thing: sight, sound, smell, taste, touch. There will be senses you’re better at than others. Personally, I have a very weak sense of smell, so I always forget to add smell to my written scenes. The good thing is that I know that, so I can look for it on my second pass.

If you’re still stumped after that, it’s probably a good idea to bring a new character into the scene.

Don’t be afraid to have your characters lose

It makes your audience feel sympathetic for them. Again, we’re talking about that buy-in and that emotion. Emotion builds character.

If everything is going right in a scene, there are no stakes. This is something I’ve been especially focused on correcting in my own writing: what do my characters want, and what is preventing them from getting it? It’s just like how a superhero with no flaws or a villain with no weaknesses is predictable, because nothing can hurt them. I want to see some angst, some conflict.

(I saw this one piece of advice for improv actors online that said, “Don’t be afraid to die on stage. And stay dead.” Kill your darlings, anyone?)

And my final, most important point: It’s okay to laugh at your mistakes rather than feel shame

This is the best lesson I’ve learned. The creative process is about trial-and-error. Discovery. The best scenes are ones you never could’ve predicted. If something didn’t quite work, you can laugh it off and try again.

You can critique creativity, yes, but there shouldn’t be explicit shame in the creative process. I internalize critique a lot, feeling it’s a reflection of my character, but I am a human doing life for the first time like everyone else. I’ve felt a lot more compassion for myself after struggling in an improv scene and realizing after class, hey, no one else thinks I’m an awful person because I couldn’t think of a clever line. It took months to get to that point, but now that I’m there, I’m so grateful.

So you, friend, reading this. You’re doing great! Laugh it off and try again. You’ve got this.

[authorajparker]

takes you by the hand. please please please if you're stuck on your WIP or you can't figure out how to progress the scene PLEASE skip ahead. skip a few lines ahead. skip until the next Thing you can think of happens. skip to it skip to it skip to it. you may uncover what you were missing in the midst of your next scenes and you may discover that just transitioning straight to Next Part works flawlessly. skip it. don't sink. skip.

[authorajparker]

It's such an amazing feeling when someone picks up on something in your writing that you 100% intended but didn't think people would notice. Like, YES!! My writing properly conveyed the thing it was supposed to!!! You are so awesome for noticing that!!! I am so awesome for writing that!!! I feel so good about my story now!!!!

[authorajparker]

i love giving my sidekicks sidekicks

[authorajparker]

i’ve been really into onomatopoeia lately. like come on, say it: whooosh. it’s so fun. underrated literary device fr

[authorajparker]

How to convey information through dialogue without shoehorning it in

So you have information you want to plant into your story, and you would like to do that through dialogue. Naturally, you'd want to make the dialogue look natural, so that it doesn't scream -> This Piece Of Information <- Will Be Relevant To The Plot Later!!! I never saw any writing advice about this subject, so I thought I’d write up a post about it.

Say, for example, you want to plant the information that Barney is afraid of fridges. Fridges? Jup. That's weird. Jup. Which makes it all the more difficult to bring up in a scene. And what makes it even more difficult, you decided you want this dialogue to take place before the Thing With The Fridge Happens later on, so you're in a pickle. How do you bring up a fear of fridges, when there are no fridges around?

First, I'm going to show you how shoehorning the information in a dialogue would look like.

Don't do this:

Annie and Barney are in a scene that has nothing to do with fridges.

Annie: "By the way," she asked casually, "have I ever asked you what your worst fear is? Since we’re on this quest together, we should know these things about each other."

Barney: "Fridges. They scare the bejeebers out of me."

Annie: "Fridges?" She laughed incredulously. "How come?"

Barney: "Well, one time my brother locked me into a fridge, and I've been afraid ever since."

Annie: “That makes sense, Barney. I’m sorry you had to go through that.”

Try to avoid using things like “by the way” or “suddenly” in this part of the dialogue, because that’s a shoehorn red flag.

Instead, you want the conversation to flow from something inconspicuous to the information you want to plant and then into at least one other topic.

Do this:

Annie and Barney are in a scene that has nothing to do with fridges, for example they are thrown into a snake pit during their quest.

Barney deals with venomous snakes without a second thought.

Annie, in the corner, trying to get a hold of herself: "I can't believe you're not afraid of those snakes."

Barney: "You just got to know how to handle them."

Annie, in awe: "You're fearless."

Barney, laughs: "Trust me, I'm not. You should see me around fridges."

Annie: "Fridges...?"

Barney: "My brother locked me into one when we were little. I almost suffocated. Never trusted them ever since. Nor my brother, obviously."

The conversation continues about his relationship with his brother, making it seem like that's the important bit. You sneaked the information about Barney's fear for fridges into the dialogue about snakes and his brother.

Let’s break that down, shall we?

This conversation has three topics: snakes, fridges, and Barney’s brother. The snakes and Barney’s brother don’t really matter. They could just as well be completely different topics. (I'll show you later.) Their only function is to ease into the conversation about Barney’s fridge fear and ease out of it without drawing the reader’s attention to its importance.

Topic 1: Something present in this scene that has a thing in common with topic 2

Discussing the snakes feels organic and natural, because they are kind of hard to ignore in this scene. Make the first topic something related to what the characters see, feel, experience in that particular scene… Write a piece of dialogue about topic one.

Topic 2: The information you want to plant

Then transition into the topic switch. How? The topic of fridges and the topic of snakes have one thing in common: fear. Specifically, Annie is afraid of snakes and Barney isn’t, but he is afraid of fridges. Bringing this interesting bit into the conversation changes the topic again, because how can you not go into a sentence like this?

Topic 3: Anything related to topic 2 you can latch onto

The topic is changed yet again after the information you planned to plant. Just let this part of the dialogue run its course. It doesn’t matter much what you do with it, as long as you don’t stop the dialogue right after the moment you delivered the line you needed to deliver. The trick is to make the conversation flow to and from your chosen topic.

Let’s look at another example, something more realistic. You still want to convey the fact that Barney is afraid of fridges, but this time, Annie and Barney are not on a quest, they are in a romance novel.

Barney and Annie are looking out over the ocean. She brought a bottle of wine, a light breeze cools their skin, in the distance, a cargo boat slowly glides along the horizon. It seems like a perfect moment.

Barney raises his glass and compliments Annie: “You pick great wine.” (topic 1)

Annie: “Thanks. I did a wine course last year in my local community center, a series in which we learned all about the different kinds of wine and what to pair it with.”

Barney: “Sounds like fun. You should teach me sometime. Did you get to taste everything?”

Annie: “Yeah, of course. That was the main reason I joined. What about you? Which wine do you prefer?”

Barney: “Oh, I’m not a connaisseur. I like anything but white wines.” (change of topic)

Annie: “Why not?”

Barney, embarrassed: “Red wines are usually kept at room temperature, and white wines go in the fridge.”

Annie, after a second: “I can’t see the problem there.”

Barney, embarrassed: “Ah. Well. I don’t like fridges. Like, not at all. My brother once locked me into one, and – well, let’s say it was a hugely traumatic experience.” (boom, there it is: topic 2)

Annie, confused: “But – How do you keep your food fresh?” (change of topic) (doesn't necessarily have to happen so soon after The Line)

Barney, still embarrassed: “I go to the supermarket every other day.” (topic 3)

The conversation continues about going to the supermarket every other day and foods that Barney can't eat because they spoil too fast outside of the fridge. Annie is surprised to hear how many things can be kept at room temperature for a day or two. (topic 3,5)

That's it, folks :)

I hope this was helpful. Don’t hesitate to ask me any questions, and happy writing! This post was inspired by a question from @therska.

Follow me for more writing advice, or check out my other writing tips here. New topics to write advice about are also always appreciated.

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