Agile Story Development: Discover Your Story Through Improv

There are nine and sixty ways
of constructing tribal lays,
And-every-single-one-of-them-is-right!
-Rudyard Kipling, "In the Neolithic Age"

Anyone who tells you they have the One True Way to Write is either naïve or trying to sell you something. Kipling underestimated. There are a lot more than nine and sixty ways. You can learn from all of them. You can choose different ways for different projects, or even mix and match ways within a single project. Tools, not rules. Add to your toolset.

One of the most vocal debates in the writing community is between those who claim you must outline, and those who prefer to discover as they write. There are a great number of books and courses to help you be an outliner. (I even wrote one myself.) But guides to being a discovery writer are less common. The process depends so much upon instinct. It's practically subconscious. How do you teach what you can barely describe?

But I'm going to try! Discovery writing is spiritually related to Improv Theater, in which actors spontaneously create a story from starting elements. It's also related to Role-Playing Games, cooperative storytelling with rules. And it even has elements in common with Agile Software Development, disciples for creating software in response to discovered requirements instead of Big Design Up Front.

All of these and more are elements of how I discovery write. In this book, I'll share principles and exercises you can explore for your writing, whether outlining or discovering.