Improv [Writing] Tip #5: Be specific

(#5 in a series of tips from my improv class that struck me as applying to writing.)

Improv [Writing] Tip #5: Be specific.
Don’t just drink coffee. Drink a triple espresso with half&half, two sugars, and a dollop of whip cream.

There’s a great exercise for large group improv called “Setting the Scene.” In it, three or four performers set the imaginary scene by walking and gesturing all over the stage, while two other performers stand to one side listening and watching. The suggestion from the audience is “shopping mall.”

Performer #1: We’re at the food court of the shopping mall. Baja Buds is to the left over here, where three teenagers are throwing food at each other. The escalator goes down right here, in the middle.
Performer #2: There’s a fountain with benches here, near the front of the stage, and children run up to throw coins in and make a wish.
Performer #3: The right side has a sushi place and a smoothie place, with an ATM and the bathrooms. The floor is tiled and slippery, it’s just been washed.

And… Scene.

The two performers who have been watching all this ideally have memorized all the details and are now ready to have their way with the “set” as it’s been established by the others.

Performers #4 and #5 mime coming up the escalator.
Performer #4: Aw man, I left my ATM card at home! I really wanted some Baja Buds carnitas de nuevo de porcino de allejandro.
Performer #5: Yeah, I heard those are good. [Mimes slipping and almost  hitting a running child.] Dang these kids, they’re everywhere!
Performer #4: And throwing away all that perfectly good money!
Performer #5: Here kid, help me out. [Mimes picking a kid up by the ankles and dunking in the fountain.] Now that’s an ATM.

It’s the specifics that give the performers something to work with. Otherwise, they’d be sitting in the dreaded featureless white room. And note, they don’t use every detail given to them, just the ones that make their scene flow. But they needed a wealth of details to choose from.

So how does this work in writing? How could it not?

Let’s say you’ve got two characters. What do you know about them? Be specific. How do they like their eggs? How late do they stay up at night? What do they like to read/watch/listen to? How big is their family of origin? Did they do well in school?

Let’s say you’ve got a situation. There’s a dead body on the floor in the lobby of a five-star hotel. How did the guy die? Is there blood? Blunt object trauma? Witnesses? What time of day/night is it? What’s the weather outside? Are people wearing coats or carrying umbrellas?

And… Scene.

It’s night, pouring rain, lots of blood, no witnesses.

So you bring in your police officer, drenched, no umbrella, the middle daughter of a family of boys, likes her eggs only if they’re with bacon, stays up late every night listening to death metal on her headphones, and did poorly in school because she was smarter than the teachers.

Your second character is the nervous hotel manager, insipid, balding, who likes his eggs poached over toast points, goes to bed promptly at 9:30 every night with an Agatha Christie murder and a hot chocolate, was an only child from a well-heeled East Coast home, and sailed through school because he always knew what the teachers wanted.

Do you see how the scene will pretty much write itself?

Experiment: Be as weirdly specific as you possibly can with the next page of your work in progress. Write the scene. How did it turn out?

Tagged as: Character, Improv, Setting, Writing How-To