Improvise with Your Writing (Michelle Intro) (07/18/2020)

A recap of the week's writing at Atticus Review. Introduction by Michelle Ross.

View this email in your browser

Probably you’ve heard writers talk about adapting an “improvisational” attitude to writing, but here’s some context: improv actors act on the fly. They’re trained to mentally say, “Yes, and…” meaning 1) they accept the premise or contribution offered by another actor and 2) they build onto that premise, continuing the story. They don’t get to say “No, actually, that prompt seems too challenging” or “sorry, I’m stumped.” 

A “Yes, and…” attitude can help turn off your inner critic and unblock your creativity. Instead of deciding that an idea you have is too crazy or dumb, just go with it. Instead of abandoning a piece halfway in because you don’t know where to take it next, just try something, anything at all.  

Of course, this advice entails adapting a method designed for collaborative work to solo work. In improvisational acting, you have to be quick and you have to deliver because other people are counting on you and will hold you accountable. Also, in improvisational acting, no actor is stuck inventing the entire story all on their own. When it’s all on you, on the other hand, sometimes saying, “Yes, and…” is a struggle. It feels easier just to bang your head against a wall.

The solution? Exercise your improv muscles by practicing this technique in the manner it was intended: collaborate with someone. You don’t have to commit to completing a project with another writer to benefit from the exercise of collaborating. 

I’ve been writing short stories collaboratively with my good writer friend, Kim Magowan, for about three years now. People are often curious about our process. Do we sketch a story out in advance? Do we talk about where the story is going while we’re working on it? Do we have some set of story rules? The answers are no, no, and no. When we write a story together, we’re actualizing the improvisational method. One of us begins and then we just pass the story back and forth until we reach what seems to be the end. We’re offering each other prompts and twists, and we’re saying to those prompts and twists, “Yes, and…” It’s that simple.

Surrendering control over a narrative is incredibly liberating. Because my task in a given turn is simply to write a few paragraphs, collaboration helps me stop worrying about where the story is going and focus on the present moment — where the story is now. Collaboration helps train me to write in shorter bursts so that I end a writing session when I’m on a high point (instead of writing until I’m spinning my wheels in the mud). Most importantly, the practice of lobbing a story back and forth, and so having to respond again and again to situations and details not of my own making, helps make me a more limber and courageous writer. I’m no longer so easily stymied by indecision. 

These are all skills and habits that benefit my solo work, too, of course. For this reason, it’s often when I’m feeling stuck in my own work that I’m most likely to toss a prompt Kim’s way. The practice of collaboration helps train me to be better at saying, “Yes, and…” to myself.

Thanks for reading. We're glad you're here.

Michelle Ross

Fiction Editor

THIS WEEK AT ATTICUS REVIEW

FICTIONSERIOUS, STRAIGHT-BACKby Woody Skinner"And then the moment she still thinks about now, ten years later, when she’s wiping the stovetop or running the can opener and he flickers through the kitchen..."READ ON

POETRYPINKY SWEARby Tiffany Hsieh"I’m sure the two of you didn’t, either. I’m sure when the three of us pinky-swore we’d meet in front of the Taichung Train Station in twenty years, it was just us being silly together, like when we swore we’d marry a boy band and be wives together."READ ON

POETRYEDENby Jeffrey Hermann"It was our mothers who called us homeblood still under our nailsAt dinner we’d lick our fingers clean"READ ON

CREATIVE NONFICTIONBEAUTY AND SORROWby Karen George"Amid all this exquisite intricacy, I learned my friend’s son died in his sleep — an artist whose paintings grace my home."READ ON

SUPPORT ATTICUS!

Giving = Loving. We are able to bring you content such as this through the generous support of readers like yourself. Please become a regular

Patreon Subscriber

today. Some subscription levels include our Print Annual. Also, free entry to all our contests.

Thank you!!