Unpacking An Improvisational Writing Experiment

This post began as an idea in December during our month focused on giving and receiving and dissipated in execution by the start of January. Our writing chain would pause, glitch, or break.

The concept was to create an improvisational post based on volunteers writing one sentence at a time. Click here to read the original idea.

I toyed with the idea of giving the whole post an execution but I wish to unpacked some learnings from the process and give my courageous co-authors a chance to comment.

The post was written one sentence at a time by the authors listed at the end of the post. This was indeed a big challenge especially with people away during the holidays. I tried to do this by email so that it would be open to everyone.

I take responsibility for the post and I wish to absolve all my participants of responsibility for the final product. In fact I think the product is only half of this post, the process is the key and after the co-created post I will share some bullet points lessons.

Remember, as you read this it was written over a number of weeks one sentence at a time by 9 different contributors:

I receive what I give. And then happily, I notice that I has become we. And although it's my turn - suddenly it's us who are telling this story. What a beautiful thing us is – working in tandem to encourage warmth, beauty and hope. Then, I understand that my story can never be just about me; there must be a receiver for the giver. And this post in the space of 12 hours embraced two new receivers, Julia and Tim.   

So the circle of us grows as I take inspiration from David, April, Dean, Joanna and Rosa's gifts not only share back with the givers but to share with the rest of my world.  It is in the sharing that our group learns to collaborate and collaborates to learn. We seem to enthusiastically agree that we want to give this collaborative learning to each other as a genuine experience; now, how can we stretch and enlarge that intention to it's fullest potential? It's a question and challenge from Rosa, but I'm thrown back to the other words she gifted me today: about fathers, and what they mean to us, and the importance of treasuring mine.

It is phenomenal time of year to consider the treasures that are not found in a catalog, store, or in a neatly wrapped package with a pretty bow under the tree.  And, as these most valued treasures are seen again for the first time, we find they are what we always wanted. The real treasure to open is the unique perspective of each writer here and "hear" the following sentence from each contributor on what specifically they have treasures most in giving this December.

The treasure from Julia this year is focused time which I find myself often too busy to give - time to watch my six year old girl stare in wonder as Nutcrackers, Sugar Plum Fairies and Gingerbread children dance across the stage; time to help my children understand how blessed their lives are by seeing the needs of other children their age; and time to watch my children decorate Christmas cookies with a little too much frosting and sprinkles but the pride of having done it by themselves. Tim finds that he is treasuring the snow and skiing with his wife and kids, and the time they spend together held captive on ski lifts hovering 30 feet in the air. Rosa has discovered the most amazing generosity: Her family is intent on giving her peace of mind.  And this intrigues me, this intent, and I wonder if this is how we give our most important presents: insistently, persistently, patiently, with love and with intent, so the gift cannot be overlooked, or exchanged, or returned. I also wonder why so many of us wait until this time of the year to take inventory of those bigger things that are most important and most valuable. For Dean, it's a combination of celebration - as it is every year. Our 32nd anniversary (19th) and Christ's birthday six days later. This year, we will celebrate - may it never stop! Steve turns to his father and comes to understand more of what made him and in turn develop us with an appreciation of bringing light in times of darkness.

Playful contributors: Julia Miler, Tim Milburn, Rosa Say. Joanna Young, April Groves, Stephen Sherlock, Dean Boyer, Andy Leitermann, and myself

Unpacking the observations and lessons from an Improvisational Post:

• We will not be successful at everything we try and failure is fine because there is learning available if we are willing to reflect and unpack the lessons. I am more willing to put "failure" where I can see it and learn from it rather than bury it under the carpet or hit the delete button. The spirit of improvisation is to embrace failure.
• It took courage and connection to keep a post like this going and I salute and learned how much effort people are willing to put into a project. Support makes all the difference in the world, and to me, ultimate success comes in second place.
• It was interesting to watch this post evolve one sentence at a time and realize each person is free to take it in different directions and each person is vital to where it is headed.
• I have clearer ideas about how I would do this if I was to attempt it again: I would keep a tighter focus and probably use a Google document so that people could go and post on the document rather than trying to follow a long email chain.
• Thank you to each participant for giving me a chance to play with the idea of improvisational writing and learn some valuable lessons for the future of not only improvisational writing but teamwork.

It is now time for me to pack my bag of learning from 2007 and move fully into 2008, "all aboard..."

David

Comments

[Steve Sherlock]

Thanks for doing this David. It was fun to participate both to add the one sentence at a time and to see how the process worked.

[David Zinger]

I am glad it was not a life sentence Steve. Thank you for taking part.

[Joanna Young]

David, likewise, thanks for organising this, keeping us on track and sharing the learning.

I have to confess to finding the exercise quite a challenge... I'll follow your example and try and unpack:

I'm not a fan of long sentences but found myself drifting into them - I guess it's the feeling that if you've only got one go you want to try and stretch it...

My sentences felt too waffly - and I prefer specific language. I know you tried to encourage us to be specific but it seemed to be a challenge to bring things back from the abstract

I found it hard to write words that weren't quite my own - I think I was trying (too hard) to acknowledge what had gone before and create a bridge into the words of the next person so my own words didn't have their own life

I did feel some pressure to come up with something 'of value' (despite your reassurances that we shouldn't think too hard) and of course this got in the way of the words flowing properly

I'd love for us to experiment some more - and maybe try some different applications. I've been reading a bit about the use of twitter for writing projects - I'd love for us to try and experiment with that some time! Will keep exploring how it might work meantime.

http://edu.blogs.com/edublogs/2007/12/twittories---14.html

Thanks again and I hope this feedback is useful

Joanna

[David Zinger]

Joanna,

Thank you for your thoughtful response.

Much of what we went through in writing I found myself and other participants in improvisational classes going through too. One principle that I will always remember from my improvisation class: we are here to make others look good.

To do this we must set others up for success and keep a very external focus.

Take care, carry on caring, and keep up the fine writing.

David

[Ariane Benefit, Neat & Simple Living]

Very interesting! I love the lessons learned. I think you are spot on about the Google docs...or perhaps you could use a page on the google group? I'm just starting to think aobut ways to use Google Groups for group learning..it could be really cool!

[tim]

I thought this was fun to watch and participate in. As a writer, I was pulled into the whole process because I wanted to see how the writing was unfolding, especially as it got closer to my turn.

I think we all learned something from just trying it. That's the inspiring part. If we do it again, we'll do it better. And we'll learn some more.

[David Zinger]

Tim,
I thought it was fun to watch and see unfolding. I so much more like unfolding than forcing. I am glad you learned something from just trying it and given the comments some time this year we can try again using what we learned to create something powerful and unanticipated.
Carry on caring,
David