Session 1.5 - Say Yes And to Your Story
THE GOAL: Use the improv principle YES AND to further explore four different aspects of your story.
Time commitment: 20 minutes

Let's have a good-old-fashion brainstorm. You will answer a few questions about your story, further elaborating on each answer using YES AND.
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Improv Tool: Yes And
Your ability to do and say dumb stuff without worrying about it (like you have in previous sessions with FIVE THINGS and ALPHABETICAL LISTS) is the building block of improv. YES AND is how you put those blocks together and build surprisingly effective and efficient comedy or theater or storytelling.

Yes And is the fundamental tenet of improv. It assumes that there are no good ideas and bad ideas—that any idea can be turned into something good or great by supporting it and building on it. The alternative is wasting our time looking for better ideas, making our partners (or ourselves) feel bad by rejecting "unworthy" ideas and putting so much pressure on ourselves that we give up on ideas and projects without ever following through on them.

So let's start saying Yes And.
Improv Drill: Turn the following boring, underwhelming sentence into something more exciting/interesting/funny/etc. with Yes And. - "We're getting a new dog."
(E.g. Yes And there have been a lot of burglaries in the neighborhood lately, so we picked out a big, mean-looking Doberman. Or, Yes And now we'll have 16 dogs total, which feels like the right number for a proper pack.)
Improv Drill: Same thing! But don't worry about making it exciting/interesting/funny. Just adding more information will get the job done for now. - "There's a storm coming."
(E.g. Yes And I can feel the pressure change in my knees.)
Improv Drill: One more. - "That woman behind the counter looks familiar."
(E.g. Yes And she was the prom queen our senior year of high school.)
Writing Goal: Brainstorming with Yes And
Answer the following questions and then use YES AND to elaborate on your answers. Stories come in all different shapes and sizes, so not all of these questions will feel like a perfect fit for your idea, but try to come up with something for each one even if you have to cheat it a bit.
Writing Exercise 1: How does your main character discover "a whole new world" in the story, either literally or figuratively?
(E.g. Harry Potter is introduced to a fantastical Wizarding World that he never knew existed. | Jing-mei, the American-born protagonist of "The Joy Luck Club," immerses herself in the company and stories of an older generation of women who immigrated from China.)
YES AND... (tell us more about this "new world") **Start your sentence with Yes And...
(E.g. Yes And there is a boarding school for young witches and wizards where Harry will learn about magic and make new friends and enemies. | Yes And the social club that Jing-mei joins was started by her mother in China and continued in San Francisco when she and her friends immigrated.)
YES AND... (if that is true, then what else is true about this new world?)
(E.g. Yes And there are ongoing dangers and mysteries that Harry will have to overcome and solve over the course of the school year. | Yes And the group consists of three of her mother's oldest friends who reveal secrets about her mother's past.)
Writing Exercise 2: What mystery will be solved over the course of your story? What question is asked early on that will be answered by the end?
(E.g. Is the evil wizard Voldemort back from the dead? Not only is he back, he's trying to kill Harry Potter! | Can mothers and daughters overcome the cultural and generational differences between them? By sharing their stories and connecting with their heritage, they come to appreciate how much they have in common.)
YES AND... (tell us more about this mystery)
Start your sentence with Yes And.
YES AND... (if that is true, then what else is true?)
Start your sentence with Yes And.
Writing Exercise 3: How will your main character change over the course of the story?
(E.g. Harry Potter is alone in the world at the beginning and surrounded by a new community of friends and mentors by the end. | Jing-mei is insecure about her cultural identity, but by the end has fully embraced her Chinese roots and sense of family.)
Yes, and... (tell us more about this change)
Yes, and... (if that is true, then what else is true?)
Writing Exercise 4: What's the big disruption or event that kicks your story into motion? That you will spend your story resolving or dealing with the consequences of?
(E.g. The evil wizard Voldemort plunges the Wizarding World into a war that it is still reeling from 10 yers later when Harry Potter is called to Hogwarts. | When Jing-mei's mother dies she joins the social club her mother started.)
Yes, and... (tell us more about this event)
Start with Yes And.
Yes, and... (one more time)
Beta Tester feedback (optional)
If you have any thoughts or feedback at all about this process, please drop them here! Enthusiasm, complaints, criticisms and suggestions are all encouraged!
A copy of your responses will be emailed to the address you provided.
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