THE DOCTOR IS IN

THE FLEXIBILITY FACTOR

This week's improvisation class focused on the tension between spontaneity and narrative structure. Among other exercises, we worked on group storytelling. Five of us at a time stood at the front of the room. An audience member called out a title--the more ridiculous the better--and the teacher signaled to one storyteller to begin. After a few sentences, he pointed to another storyteller, and so on, in no discernible order. Thus, it was impossible to predict when one's turn was likely to come, or to plan out the story in advance.

At the same time, we had to be mindful of the need to maintain a coherent story line: to concentrate on one protagonist; to create a recognizable narrative arc; and to incorporate the elements other tellers introduced into the story line, not rejecting any detail because it wasn't what we had in mind. So we had to listen intently to each other, keeping in mind a general narrative grid, while being prepared to change the story that was forming in our heads in an instant, based on the contributions of other storytellers.

It took several tries, on different topics, before my group started to get the hang of it. Even when we started cooking, the stories were hardly Nobel-worthy. But besides being challenging and fun, I think the exercise has the potential to be helpful to my writing.
 
Of course, as writers, we generally work alone, and we have the luxury of revising our stories before sending them out for public view. However, there have been times--when an agent or editor has suggested a change that makes sense to me, but that I can't figure out how to make, or when I've realized that a section isn't working, but had trouble envisioning a solution--when I have wished that my brain was more flexible; that I could wiggle out of the box of my preconceptions of how the story "should" be and work instead with what it can become. I think, and hope, that experiences like this will help.

Susan O'Doherty, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist with a New York City-based practice. A fiction writer herself, she specializes in issues affecting writers and other creative artists. She is the author of Getting Unstuck without Coming Unglued: A Woman's Guide to Unblocking Creativity (Seal, 2007). Her Career Coach column appears every Monday on Inside Higher Ed's Mama, Ph.D. blog, and she is a regular guest panelist on Litopia After Dark. Send your questions to her at Dr.Sue at mindspring dot com.