<aside> 💡 This week, I’m answering questions from other improvisers. If you’d like to ask me something, send your thoughts to [email protected]

Steven writes: How do you mix story and emotional depth? I kind of know they shouldn't interfere and might even be mutually beneficial. But... In practice I seem to find that being attuned to creating a strong narrative tends to make my emotional connections less strong and focussing on the emotional connection often leads to less (and perhaps weaker) plot. Any thoughts?

</aside>

Yes, Steven. I have thoughts about this. Probably more thoughts than on any other improv subject. In fact, this is my favourite topic of conversation - I’ve watched eyes glaze over in improv venues across the world when the subject is broached with me. So thank you for the question, I’ll try and keep it brief.

First and foremost, I want to say you are right. It does often feel like storytelling and emotional depth are mutually exclusive. As improvisers, we’re very much making it up as we go along and our puny human brains seem incapable of both connecting with our partners on an emotionally truthful level whilst AT THE SAME TIME creating a compulsive and thrilling story beat. It’s just too much - so we often concentrate on one to the other’s detriment.

The problem, it seems to me, is one of timing. When do we focus on connecting with our partner and when do we consider the story we’re telling and try to steer it towards a clever and satisfying conclusion? For me, the simplest option seems the most inviting.

When I’m onstage, I’ll concentrate all my awareness and energy on my scene partner. When I’m offstage, I’ll pay attention to what’s happening onstage but let my mind tell me stories.

To unpack this a little, I think the only duty we have onstage is to our scene partner. If we’re tending to the overarching story in our heads rather than reacting with emotional truth in the moment then we’re not serving the show or our fellow improvisers. Characters shouldn’t react with an awareness that they’re part of a larger story - they should have big, wonderful feelings for their fellow characters, unaware that their actions will have implications for the wider plot. That’s the sweet spot for me. And the irony is, those very same big emotional moments invariably create the next story beat. They are like flashing, neon signs pointing the way forward.

React in the moment with truth and then work out what the hell it means for the story once you’re at the side of the stage and are able to switch on your critical facilities. And even then, you shouldn’t be working out the rest of the plot, just an obvious next step. Where is it logical for your character to go next?

And the great news is, often you won’t even have to do that, because if your whole team is practiced in this method of creating narrative, everyone else will be processing the unfolding story in the same way and you’ll find, more often than not, that team mates are initiating scenes for your character that advance the narrative for you.

One final point, when you’re on stage and focussed on your scene partner, you still need to notice plot-related information. Not react to it in the moment necessarily, but observe it and retain it for later. For ease of processing, I tend to focus on three mental lists:

The Guest List: Characters, personalities, relationships The Calendar: Events, locations and important dates The Manifesto: Themes and motifs

You need to get to a point where you are passively collating this information as you play, so that you are able to examine what you’ve created in an informed way afterwards. Counterintuitively, you need a lot of information to make those simple, elegant narrative choices.

So, once again, it all comes down to listening more than you speak. Which is the best way to improvise at all times anyway.

Hope that helps? How does this line up with your experience of narrative improv? Let me know.

<aside> 💡 Hey, my name’s Chris Mead. I write an article about improv almost every week. You can get the latest in your inbox by subscribing to my newsletter. Or check out the archive.

</aside>