San Miguel Writer's Conference Workshop Handout
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How To Create Characters that JUMP Off the Page!
San Miguel Writers’ Conference 2016 Workshop Handout
Sunday, Feb. 14 from 11-12:30*
~
Note to workshop participants.
I have included some pre-workshop homework for you. Bring paper and pens, and wear loose comfortable clothing. Lastly, please arrive on time! I only have you for 90 minutes and want you to get the most out of the workshop. Looking forward to playing with you on Valentine’s Day in San Miguel!
The 7 Rules of improvisation
From Dave Morris – The way of improvisation
Play
Let yourself fail
Listening
Say yes
Say ‘and’
Play the game
Relax and have fun
~
Improvisation is a process in which plot, characters and dialogue are made up in the moment.
How can improvisation help us as writers?
Writing is a solitary art. It’s easy to get stuck in pre-conceived ideas of what should be happening. Improv busts us out of our heads and into our bodies. It teaches us to ‘say yes’ to our creativity.
“All great ideas originate in the muscles.” Thomas Edison
What is my homework?
I recently took a poetry workshop where the teacher reminded us that, although writing requires a lot of effort, great writing must have an element of play. Please playfully approach the following bits of homework. If you attend to this the week prior to the conference, your subconscious mind will have lots of time to percolate on what you have begun.
Now, trust yourself and write!
1. Pick a character to work with. It can be a character from something you are writing, a favourite historical character, or something from your imagination. Go where the energy is!
2. Do a free write around the character. Be willing to step into the unknown and allow whatever wants to come. Images. Sensory information. Setting. Whatever. Take 3 sheets of paper, writing longhand with a pencil or pen. Do not lift your pen off the paper. Say yes to all your ideas. Fill all 3 pages.
3. In your imagination, step inside the character. Do a second free write from the point of view of ‘I’ in the present tense. Bring in all the senses. Show how you feel by the actions the character takes.
E.g. I am running into the field. The sky is lilac-grey and the air tastes like ice. My cheeks are burning hot. But not from the cold.
“First thought. Best thought.” Allen Ginsburg
“Through spontaneity we are reformed into ourselves, freed from handed-down frames of reference, memory choked with old facts and information and undigested theories and techniques of other people's findings.”
Viola Spolin
San Miguel Writers’ Conference 2016 Workshop Handout
Sunday, Feb. 14 from 11-12:30*
~
Note to workshop participants.
I have included some pre-workshop homework for you. Bring paper and pens, and wear loose comfortable clothing. Lastly, please arrive on time! I only have you for 90 minutes and want you to get the most out of the workshop. Looking forward to playing with you on Valentine’s Day in San Miguel!
The 7 Rules of improvisation
From Dave Morris – The way of improvisation
Play
Let yourself fail
Listening
Say yes
Say ‘and’
Play the game
Relax and have fun
~
Improvisation is a process in which plot, characters and dialogue are made up in the moment.
How can improvisation help us as writers?
Writing is a solitary art. It’s easy to get stuck in pre-conceived ideas of what should be happening. Improv busts us out of our heads and into our bodies. It teaches us to ‘say yes’ to our creativity.
“All great ideas originate in the muscles.” Thomas Edison
What is my homework?
I recently took a poetry workshop where the teacher reminded us that, although writing requires a lot of effort, great writing must have an element of play. Please playfully approach the following bits of homework. If you attend to this the week prior to the conference, your subconscious mind will have lots of time to percolate on what you have begun.
Now, trust yourself and write!
1. Pick a character to work with. It can be a character from something you are writing, a favourite historical character, or something from your imagination. Go where the energy is!
2. Do a free write around the character. Be willing to step into the unknown and allow whatever wants to come. Images. Sensory information. Setting. Whatever. Take 3 sheets of paper, writing longhand with a pencil or pen. Do not lift your pen off the paper. Say yes to all your ideas. Fill all 3 pages.
3. In your imagination, step inside the character. Do a second free write from the point of view of ‘I’ in the present tense. Bring in all the senses. Show how you feel by the actions the character takes.
E.g. I am running into the field. The sky is lilac-grey and the air tastes like ice. My cheeks are burning hot. But not from the cold.
“First thought. Best thought.” Allen Ginsburg
“Through spontaneity we are reformed into ourselves, freed from handed-down frames of reference, memory choked with old facts and information and undigested theories and techniques of other people's findings.”
Viola Spolin
How To Create Characters that JUMP Off the Page!
Workshop Outline
11:00 Welcome
Creative mind vs. Editorial mind
The way of improv
Free write
11:30 Let’s play!
12:20 Q & A
12:30 Go forth and prosper
“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.”
Maya Angelou
“I have fallen in love with imagination. And if you fall in love with imagination, you understand that it is a free spirit. It can go anywhere and it can do anything.”
Alice Walker
Resources
The joy of failure – improv and writing
http://www.sfwa.org/2013/07/the-joy-of-failure-improv-and-writing/
Viola Spolin
http://www.spolin.com
The way of improvisation
https://gcintro2theatre.wordpress.com/2014/09/04/7-rules-of-improvisation/
Creative mind vs. Editorial mind
The way of improv
Free write
11:30 Let’s play!
- Theatre games / Group
- Improv - What if?
12:20 Q & A
12:30 Go forth and prosper
“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.”
Maya Angelou
“I have fallen in love with imagination. And if you fall in love with imagination, you understand that it is a free spirit. It can go anywhere and it can do anything.”
Alice Walker
Resources
The joy of failure – improv and writing
http://www.sfwa.org/2013/07/the-joy-of-failure-improv-and-writing/
Viola Spolin
http://www.spolin.com
The way of improvisation
https://gcintro2theatre.wordpress.com/2014/09/04/7-rules-of-improvisation/