Fail Faster

Paul Tevis' blog post today captures the mind set of improvisation pretty well. There are a lot of skills to practice in improv, but the most important to practice is taking a leap and "going in" with eyes wide open.

"Nope, screw it. I'm going in."

In retrospect, I wish I had practiced it a lot more back in my improv days. Staying safe has been a hard habit to break. I used to frequently repeat the improv mantra "Dare to fail." Now I prefer the mantra I learned from game design, "Fail faster."

In "Finding Fun (Part IV)" I'm going to dare to briefly dip my toe into the subject of roleplaying and narrative. Libraries of books have been written about narrative including books with charts and graphs. I just picked up Robin Law's book, "Hamlet's Hit Points", which I plan on reading soon. Maybe this time the theory of turning points, rising action, and denouements will stick in my head better than it has in the past. Joseph Campbell's "Hero's Journey" has managed to stick with me pretty well, probably thanks to Bill Moyers.

For wisdom about narrative and roleplaying, there are people much wiser than me including Rob Donoghue, John Kim, among others. Next post I'll say what I can based upon what I've learned from improv and roleplaying.