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Scramble and Sort

Scramble and Sort

by | Apr 2, 2019

Scramble and Sort

After collecting feedback, scramble and sort it into new categories so the group can help the writer choose a starting place for a revision.

Style

Collaborator

Skill

Applying Feedback

Time

15 minutes

THE CAFE:

Scramble and Sort

If you’re a Collaborator, you’ll love gathering with a group of friends for a feedback session. Start there, and ask each person to write their own thoughts on post-it notes so that none get lost through the process.

To begin, read a short selection aloud. Then, listeners should capture three sets of feedback:

  • What they know
  • What they think they know
  • What they wonder

Then, move on to the scramble and sort activity below. With your group, decide how many of your pieces you’ll consider in one meeting, and whether to gather again to finish. If you choose to consider everyone’s in one sit-down, keep each round short, and make sure to bring snacks to keep everyone’s energy up!

 

Materials

How to Play

  • Timer

  • Paper

  • Pencil
  • Computer (optional)

1. Use a blank wall or large pieces of paper labeled, “Know,” “Think,” and “Wonder.

2. Each listener should put their post-its up in the correct category for all to see.

3. Each listener should review what’s up on the wall, and add any additional notes that the post-it’s spark.

4. Then, review looking for categories of questions and ideas. Work together to sort the post-its into new categories.

5. Once you have agreed on the new sort, title each of the new categories. Have fun with the titling process so that you end up with creative names.

6. Then, have a conversation about which area feels like the starting domino. Where would it be most helpful for the writer to focus first?

7. If time allows, after all the writers who will present for the night have finished the above steps, give each writer the floor for a few more minutes. If they’d like additional help, they should ask the group a “How many ways can we think of to …?” question that will help them begin to take steps forward with that starting domino. The goal is a large quantity of ideas to kickstart their thinking.

Try On Other Creative Styles

Pin the Heart on the Problem

FOR INVENTORS

List the issues raised and then use “Why …?” to narrow in on the heart of the problem.

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The Question Queue

FOR ARCHITECTS

Line up your questions and address them one by one in this structured revision approach.

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And Down the Stretch they Come

FOR SPECIAL AGENTS

Choose the frontrunner issues and tackle them head-on with a quick-listing exercise.

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Storyboard like an Animator

Storyboard like an Animator

by | Apr 2, 2019

Storyboard like an Animator

Use the Hero’s Journey to structure your storyboard discussion with a collaborator.

Style

Collaborator

Skill

Structuring Ideas

Time

15 – 45 mins

THE WORKSHOP:

Storyboard like an Animator

You may not work at your favorite animation studio, but that doesn’t mean you can’t approach your next storyboarding session with a playful attitude. Simply working with a collaborator will start you off on the right foot. Together, you can act out scenes, play with possibilities, and crack jokes. Use colorful tools and sketches, too, to keep the process fun. To structure and focus your conversation, start with a simple Hero’s Journey framework and elaborate from there.

When should you storyboard your manuscript? There are a number of times in the writing process where working with a storyboard can be useful.

After idea generation, storyboarding will help you structure energetic brainstorming into a solid plan for your story. For me, the right moment is after I’ve done some full-plot brainstorming, and after I’ve drafted at least two or three scenes.

When drafting, storyboarding is an excellent get-unstuck tool. You might play a game or two to shake up your ideas and then use a storyboard to help you plug your new ideas into the plot. If you’ve already created a storyboard, you can play around with the variables to see if a change here or there might unstick your stuck moment. If not, a storyboard will give you increased clarity.

When revising, storyboarding is a powerful shortcut to help you see the effect of changes. Rather than trying to hold your entire plot in your mind while you experiment with possibilities, swap elements into and out of your storyboard to see how each change will impact your plot. Using this simplified view, you’ll be able to problem-solve with greater perspective and speed.

Materials

How to Play

  • Timer
  • Paper
  • Colored Pencils
  • Index Cards
  • Post-Its
  • Posterboard, a White Board, or a Large Open Space (such as a wall, a tabletop, or the floor)

1. Decide whether you’ll work on one of your stories, or if you’ll split the time in two and work on each of your stories for half of your time. Adjust your timing accordingly.

2. Set a timer for five minutes.

3. In that short time, capture the main points in your story using a Hero’s Journey frame. Here are the stages as I often plan through them:

  • Ordinary Life – What are your main character’s circumstances? How do we see their strengths and weaknesses in action?
  • Call to Adventure – How does the story’s challenge or opportunity show up?
  • Crossing the Threshold – What happens as soon as the character says yes to the adventure? Or, what happens when they’re forced into it against their will?
  • Belly of the Whale – What are the stakes, now that the adventure has begun? How might you show the stakes in a scene?
  • A Wise Advisor – Who shows up to provide aid, information, or training for your character? (This stage can happen here, or sometimes it happens before the character crosses the threshold.)
  • Three Trials – Your story will have the amount of trials that makes the most sense to you. I start by breaking the trials into three sections, each driven by a specific objective that my main character pursues. From there, I identify what doesn’t fit and experiment.
  • Wrestling the Dragon – What about the climax is inevitable? What surprises your main character?
  • The Boon – What physical or intangible boon(s) does your character take away from the encounter with the dragon?
  • The Journey Home – What situation tests your main character’s newfound skill and/or treasure?
  • Home Again – How does “real life” begin again for your character? How might you use circumstances to show how they’ve changed? How does their growth impact their community?

4. Once the time is up, it’s time to storyboard. Grab a stack of index cards. Decide how long you want to spend on the storyboard today. Save three-five minutes at the end of your work session to capture any thinking you haven’t captured on the board and don’t want to forget. Set your timer accordingly.

5. If this is your first draft of the storyboard, use your Hero’s Journey to spark ideas for the scenes you need. Some elements will play out in one scene. Others will require more than one. Create an interesting title for each scene, and (if you like) sketch key images. Each index card should represent only one scene.

6. If you’ve already created a storyboard for this project, compare your Hero’s Journey to the cards on your board. Write new scenes on cards and add them to the board, pulling off cards that are no longer relevant.

7. When you reach problem spots, or gaps between one major scene and another, bounce ideas off one another. Try acting moments out, tossing possibilities back and forth, or sketch options on your own and then compare and decide.

8. Depending on how much time you’ve allotted for this activity, you can spend time now playing around with options, or push yourself to keep moving. If you’re speeding through, capture the givens for each important scene. You can play with possibilities later when it’s time to draft.

9. Wrap up your storyboarding session by capturing any outstanding issues. Grab a stack of post-its, and write “How might I … ” questions on each. As you post each thought on the wall, your collaborator’s questions should enrich your thinking. Snap a photo of your post-its before taking them down.

Don’t forget! If you can’t store your storyboard as is, number your cards (in pencil) so it will be easy to lay them out in this same order again.

Try On Other Creative Styles

Storyboard Like a Detective

FOR INVENTORS

Define the scenario, collect clues, and ultimately, resolve your questions. Capture your thinking on your storyboard.

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Storyboard Like a Reporter

FOR ARCHITECTS

Structure your thinking about a project with a reporter’s questions. Use your discoveries to shape your storyboard.

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Storyboard Like a Coach

FOR SPECIAL AGENTS

Run a few quick scenarios for your idea and then choose a game plan for your storyboard.

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Improvised Storytelling

Improvised Storytelling

by | Mar 21, 2019

Improvised Storytelling

Create a collaborative scene with a partner, using their questions to help you better understand your main character’s point of view.

Style

Collaborator

Skill

Improvisation

Time

10 minutes

THE STUDIO:

Improvised Storytelling

While you certainly can improvise by yourself, improvising with a partner introduces the randomness that often sparks spontaneous insight. Before you begin, you’ll want to take on an experimental mindset. You’re not planning your scene with this game. If your partner heads off in a direction you truly don’t want the scene to go, never fear! You’ll draft the story as you wish to tell it later. For now, follow your collaborator into the unknown. You may discover that your main character’s resistance teaches you something new about them, or helps you to see what might happen in the scene in a new light.

No matter what, improvisation begins with saying yes. Say yes to the ideas your partner introduces, and then add your own ideas, and see where the moment leads.

Materials

Improvised Storytelling

  • Space to move
  • Paper
  • Pen

NOTE: This game can be played before you draft a scene to explore what you might write, or after you’ve drafted it to find a deeper connection to what’s happening in the scene.

1. Choose an authority figure with whom your main character might interact. In this game, your main character will retell a scene from your story to this authority character as though the scene has already taken place. Set up a scenario where that retelling makes sense. Maybe your character is in trouble for what happened, and has to speak to the principal about it. Maybe your character is upset about their day, and they tell a favorite aunt about what happened.

2. Give your partner a few details about their character, especially so they know the tone of the questions they should ask.

3. Choose a setting, and if appropriate, an action for your characters to be engaged in together. They may be baking cookies, or folding laundry, or eating dinner. As in all improv, the action makes use of imagined props. The goal of the action is to help you engage in the scene physically and emotionally.

4. Begin the action, and once you’re both engaged in the scene physically, begin your conversation. Even though your main character is telling about something that happened to them, the scene should flow back and forth. Your partner should have plenty of opportunities to ask questions and share their thoughts as part of the scene.

5. Once you finish playing through the scene, take time to jot down your notes. Also, make sure to ask your scene partner about any insights they had while playing. They see your scene from the outside, and are likely to have thoughts that will open up your thinking to new possibilities.

6. Ideally, your scene partner is a writer, too. If so, you can now swap roles, and be their collaborator for a scene they’re working on, too.

 

Try On Other Creative Styles

The Who, What, & Where Experiment

FOR ARCHITECTS

Use this structured improv game to experiment with options for your next scene.

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Step Into Your Character's Shoes

FOR INVENTORS

Take on your character’s mindset and play through a scene in a variety of ways in this improv game for writers.

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Improvise the Highlights

FOR SPECIAL AGENTS

Use this quick-thinking improv game to identify key moments in your scene and shortcut the experimentation process.

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Share Your Heart with a Loved One

Share Your Heart with a Loved One

by | Jan 24, 2019

Share Your Heart with a Loved One

Choose a confidant and write a letter about your project. What is most important to you about creating this artwork?

Style

Collaborator

Skill

Finding the Heart

Time

15 mins

THE ATTIC:

Share Your Heart with a Loved One

 Whether you share your letter or not, writing about the importance of your project to a specific person can unlock buried ideas and insights. When you give yourself a goal — to communicate clearly — you can rattle loose thoughts that were otherwise stuck.

Consider, too, writing to more than one person. Each reader will draw out different aspects of your personality, and the combined insight may surprise you.

Materials

How to Play

  • Timer

  • Paper

  • Pen
  • Envelope (optional)

1. Choose a friend or family member who you trust.

2. Set your timer for ten minutes.

3. Write a letter to your loved one, explaining your project and why it matters to you.

– What do you want to create?

– What obstacles are you facing? What are your fears?

– Why are you willing to face them anyway?

– Are there examples, common points of reference between the two of you, that help to describe what you’re trying to do and why?

– What, if anything, could your loved one do to help support you in this effort? (And if you don’t send the letter, is this “ask” something you could ask of yourself? Sometimes we look to outside people for support we have every ability to offer ourselves.)

4. Read over your letter and underline thoughts that stand out. If you think there’s more to say, and you have more time to write, expand on the thoughts you’ve underlined.

5. If you’d like, send the letter to your friend. Or, keep it in a safe place where you can reference it when you need a reminder about the WHY of this project.

Adaptations

Try a Character

If you’re writing a story, step into the shoes of one of your characters and write from their perspective. Again, choose a loved one, or a pair of loved ones, that will bring out various parts of their personality. Instead of asking yourself about the project, ask about the main situation in the story. Then, use the rest of the questions in step three to deepen your understanding of this character’s motivations and purpose.

Try a User

Step into the role of a reader, or of someone who will experience or use the item you’re creating. Assume reading the story or interacting with the object is important to this user. Why would that be? What desire or need does this item address for them? How does it shift their mindset, provide new perspective, offer resources, or help in other ways? The more specifics you use, the more helpful this exercise will be.

Try On Other Creative Styles

Freewrite Your Heart

FOR INVENTORS

Move your hand across the page speedily to bypass your critic and discover your heart.

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Frame Your Heart in Three

FOR SPECIAL AGENTS

Choose three adjectives that focus your attention on the core of this project, and its importance to you.

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Zoom In On the Heart

FOR ARCHITECTS

Answer three key questions to focus your attention on the core of this project, and its importance to you.

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Create a Learner’s Book Club

Create a Learner’s Book Club

by | Jan 3, 2019

Create a Learner’s Book Club

Collaborate with a few friends to gain the most out of your next mentorship experience.

Style

Collaborator

Skill

Choosing a Mentor

Commitment

Ongoing

THE LIBRARY:

Create a Learner’s Book Club

 

While you certainly can set out on learning journey on your own, sometimes the added perspective and camaraderie of a group of friends makes all the difference. In a Learner’s Book Club, you can compare notes, share insights, and hold one another accountable. Even if you’re not a Collaborator all the time, this is one situation in which you may be well-served by trying on the Collaborator hat.

A Learner’s Book Club can help you:

  • Explore questions more fully from various vantage points
  • Discover new experts you don’t know about yet
  • Share the responsibility of forming questions and seeking answers

Materials

Structuring a Learner’s Book Club

  • Book

  • Discussion Questions

  • Snacks!

1. Reach out to small group to test the waters. Who else is interested in learning about the topic you want to explore?

2. Choose a book on the topic and invite your list of interested friends to a meet-up. Everyone should read the book ahead of time.

3. Prepare a set of simple questions. Here are some to spark your creativity:

What questions came up as you read this book?

What strategies stood out?

Did you try any? If so, how did they work? What might you try next?

What are you still wondering? (This last question is a great one when thinking about a best next book.)

4. Once you’ve had one meeting, follow up with friends who could make a strong ongoing group. Now that you’ve met, you’ll know more about group dynamics and the best size for your Learner’s Book Club.

5. If possible, rotate leaders. Each time a group member is the leader, they should pick the book, bring the list of questions, and generally facilitate the discussion.

P.S. Don’t forget the snacks!

Try On Other Creative Styles

Profile Three Experts

FOR ARCHITECTS

Use insight from three experts to lead you to the perfect-fit mentor.

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Assemble a Think Tank of Mentors

FOR INVENTORS

Identify one-of-a-kind insights by connecting wisdom from an eclectic group of experts.

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Choose One Expert

FOR SPECIAL AGENTS

Focus on one expert in this strategic learning exercise.

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