Out of the Mire!

Well, it seems that for some strange reason I have got it into my head that I can teach a class. Now, how that idea actually first entered my mind is a little bit of a mystery. But it has something to do with Lee Stranahan's awesome improv class, where we bring meaning to improv. Nobody knows about it. It's a secret. Albuquerque's best kept secret, in fact. A little too well kept, actually. And nobody knows that there can be meaning in improv. Virtually no one, anyway. But there is, and we do. It's genius. But anyway, doing improv with Lee reminded me of all this acting training I took years ago in New York. I had some decent teachers, actually, some great teachers, and we approached plays and movies the way actors typically do: scene by scene. Actors don't worry about writing the plot, and they don't worry about having a great ending. Of course, it's already written, so they don't have to.They literally take a scene from a play, out of order, and live in the moment with it.

But as writers, we don't have that privelege, do we? Writer's usually think they have to know what's going to happen at the end, and set everything up so it all makes sense. But it's a lie. A dirty rotten lie. Because in improv, we work like actors, scene to scene, but we also have to make up the ending. But we do just find making up the ending working this way. Thus proving my point: writer's can work the same way actors do, scene to scene, and get way better results.This is my firm belief. If, as a writer, you think like an actor, in terms of the action of each scene, it also helps get you out of the mire of endless internal dialogue. Also, if you think like an actor, you create more full characters with rich backstory and strong motivations.

Anyway, it's upon the basis of this theory that I've decided I need to bring my theory out into the world, and I now have four, possibly five students, who have given me four and a half out of five stars on my meetup page. I'll be developing the class and striving for that last half star over the next few months, and letting you know how my students fare. In the meantime, check it out at www.meetup.com/writers-workout.