Story Genie
Another idea I got from the excellent Jason Geary.
Apologies if I’ve got this one wrong.
The Story Genie
Ever seen a couple get together at the end of a story and thought ‘they shouldn’t have got back together, it doesn’t really make sense, it’s just happening because that is what happens at the end of a story’?
You’ve just witnessed the power of the story genie.
The same as when we see a villain defeated, not because the hero has struggled and won, but because the villain always loses in the end.
I love classical story structures. Possibly more than is healthy.
But paying too much attention to the big picture story means we miss the moment to moment opportunities to take the story in a new and unexpected direction.
February 7th, 2011 at 5:27 pm
This is a real hurdle in improv. I think it kicks in in the rythym of the opening act in Long Form. Some genres, like Noir and Sci-Fi seem to invite template playing more than others. It’s almost as if our story platform is a desperate wink to the audience, then, once so heavily set, almost any in-the-moment developments will/can be seen as…eh..cheese-biking.
Dunno. The paradox of specificity maybe?
February 8th, 2011 at 3:16 am
I find Noir scenes particularly infuriating. I don’t know if it’s just us, but every Noir scene we did had the same beats: detective in office, woman walks in asks him to investigate crime (usually death of husband), detective goes to bar to talk to informant, by which time everyone is bored with the whole enterprise, but feels locked in to seeing the whole thing through.
We did a workshop focused on finding different ways to play Noir, and I think it has really helped.