Please participate in this A/B test: one version of an article is written with a Clean Sequence and the other isn’t… which is more valuable to you?
I'd love your help on this one!
Please could I ask for your help? I’d like to discover more about what is different about content that’s written with Clean Sequences. It’s an important area for me…and for you too if you’re taking the time to read about the methodology (and thanks for your interest, by the way!).
I’ve written two articles, one using Clean Sequences and the other just straight out of my head. Both of them are responses to the same brief:
Think of an activity that you enjoy. Write about why someone might benefit from the activity.
I’d love it if you could:
read Version A and Version B of my responses to that brief, then
answer the quick questions in this this Google form.
Here goes…
Version A:
Why you should try Improv
Improv is great fun if you enjoy quick wit and interactions within a framework. I started Improv during lockdown and it’s added something to my life.
I think the main benefits to me are:
the whole approach of ‘yes and..’’ which is about building on ideas of others rather than blocking them;
being happy to fail;
supporting other members of the improv troupe and not being a ‘star’ myself; and
learning another way to be in the moment.
Expanding on these in turn, the first thing is about ‘yes and…’. The concept here is that, during an Improv scene, the performers listen to what others are saying, with a stance of acceptance rather than rejection. For example, if someone says: “here we are, two pot plants in a greenhouse” (that’s called an ‘offer’) then I might reply “yes and it’s stifling in here, I’m drooping already”. A block, in contrast, would be if I replied: “are you on drugs! We’re people not pot plants”.
This is a refreshing change from life, where people are often looking out for faults and leading with ‘yes but…’ or ‘no because…’. School and university is about critical thinking; it’s refreshing to be somewhere that’s about being supportive.
Being happy to fail is another excellent remedy to current lifestyle. Some Improv games are deliberately designed so that it’s impossible to ‘win’. Instead there is an emphasis on whether the whole troupe is working well. It doesn’t matter if ‘I my little self’ wins so long as the troupe is doing a great job with being entertaining and having fun.
This leads into the importance of supporting other members of the troupe. I find it very attractive that the best Improv performer is one who makes the others look good.
Finally, ‘being in the moment’ is an important part of effective Improv. It’s impossible to know what is going to come up, perhaps from a suggestion from the audience, or from an ‘offer’ by another performer. So you just have to stay in the moment. A ready mind is good, a mind full of preconceptions about what ‘must’ work in this situation is bad.
Overall, Improv has been a huge addition to my life in the two years since I started it. If what I’ve said strikes a chord, why not have a go? The worst that can happen is that you don’t keep on with it. The best is that you find not only a new hobby but also life skills.
Now here’s the second article…
Version B:
Improv can help content-creators to build on ideas rather than knocking them down, making the creative process more fun
If you are creating content, as a writer or in some other role, you might have the experience of an internal struggle between you as the ‘creator’ and you as the ‘editor’. The creator throws up wonderful, wild ideas while the editor shoots them down. In the writing world, the dichotomy is summarised in the phrase: ‘write while drunk, edit while sober’.
So wouldn’t it be useful to become more skilled in nurturing you as the ‘creator’, protected by a boundary from the ‘helping’ of you as the critical editor?
Improv is, in my experience, a real eye-opener in this area. The name Improv comes from ‘improvised comedy’ – it can also be called Impro – and it has a set of fairly well-defined operating principles. One of these is the “Yes and….” principle.
As an illustration of the principle, imagine there are two actors in an improvised scene. The first says: “It’s a dull life being pot plants in this greenhouse”. This is what’s known as an ‘offer’: there is a ‘who’ (the actors are two pot plants), a ‘where’ (in the greenhouse) and a ‘what’ (living a dull life). The second actor can reject the offer: “We’re people not pot plants!”. Or they could accept the offer: “Yes I’m sweltering here, I’m feeling myself droop all over.” This second approach is known as “Yes and…”.
When I started Improv classes a couple of years ago, I was surprised by just how encouraging it feels when there is a “Yes and…” vibe. It made me want to come up with more ideas. I’ve heard of people in Improv classes almost breaking down in tears because it’s been one of the first times in their lives that their ideas have been listened to and explored, rather than immediately being assessed, analysed, and (perhaps) annihilated.
It strikes me that the ‘Yes and…’ approach is a habit that you have to grow into. I spent years in the school and university systems being inculcated into a ‘No because…’ critical thinking approach. Not that I’m knocking it: it has its place. But its place is in the editing phase rather than in the creator phase of ideation.
Just imagine that you spend time, week after week, practising ‘Yes and…’ in an improv class so that it becomes engrained in your whole way of being. And you can default to it whenever needed. Wouldn’t that make a difference to your ability to nurture you as the creator?
I feel it’s helped me, as someone who is a professional writer and who can definitely blur that distinction between ‘writing drunk and editing sober’. Beyond that, it’s helped other creatives that I know. I’m not sure about academic articles but I do know that there are books with titles such as ‘Improv your Life’ that are concerned to show how taking Improv classes can have positive spill over effects into other parts of your life.
To get started, you could google Improv classes in your area. Also there are Improv classes online (which is how I got started during lockdown). I’m not claiming it’ll solve all your problems but if you are a creator of content then why not try a hobby that is fun in itself and which might also help you have more fun and satisfaction in your work?
I hope you’ve got something out of reading the articles. Now here’s the link again to the Google form which asks about Version A compared to Version B.
Thank you so much for your help with this!
Richard