117. Let's Play A Game, Interview with Melissa Dinwiddie, Part 2

“I'm leading people through some kind of an activity. So often when I tell people that I use play-based methods, or particularly if I tell people that I use improv, they will often jump to the conclusion that I'm doing some kind of role playing.”
-- Melissa Dinwiddie

In this How To Write the Future episode, “Let's Play A Game, Interview with Melissa Dinwiddie, Part 2” host Beth Barany continues her interview with former professional artist and trained improviser, Melissa Dinwiddie, where together they discuss the the FUN method that Melissa uses to help others creatively. Then they demonstrate a two-person game you can play to loosen up and get creative.

Listen to part 1 of the interview where Melissa shares her journey about how she became an artist after believing she was not creative and how it changed her how she saw herself.


About Melissa Dinwiddie

A former professional artist and trained improviser and jazz singer, Melissa Dinwiddie helps senior tech leaders increase their influence and reduce conflict by helping their teams communicate and connect better so their work has impact across the organization, all through her F.U.N. Method™. She designs interactive, playful programs that attendees rave about because they acquire new skills and behaviors and build connections while having a blast. Her book, The Creative Sandbox Way™, has been called "essential for the bookshelf," "the owner's guide for the caring and feeding of the creative spirit," and "an adventure packaged as a book.”

https://creativesandbox.solutions/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/a_creative_life/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melissadinwiddie/

Ready to harness the power of improv to take your leaders and HiPo’s to the next level? Evaluate where your team stands with Melissa’s Leadership Assessment Tool 👉 https://bit.ly/LeadershipAssessmentTool


RESOURCES

Free World Building Workbook for Fiction Writers: https://writersfunzone.com/blog/world-building-resources/

Sign up for the 30-minute Story Success Clinic with Beth Barany: https://writersfunzone.com/blog/story-success-clinic/

Get support for your fiction writing by a novelist and writing teacher and coach. Schedule an exploratory call here and see if Beth can support you today: https://writersfunzone.com/blog/discovery-call/

• SHOW PRODUCTION BY Beth Barany
• CO-PRODUCTION + SHOW NOTES by Kerry-Ann McDade

c. 2024 BETH BARANY

https://bethbarany.com/

--
CONNECT
Contact Beth: https://writersfunzone.com/blog/podcast/#tve-jump-185b4422580
Email: beth@bethbarany.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bethbarany/

CREDITS
EDITED WITH DESCRIPT: https://get.descript.com/0clwwvlf6e3j
MUSIC: Uppbeat.io
DISTRIBUTED BY BUZZSPROUT: https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=1994465

Transcript

117. Let's Play A Game, Interview with Melissa Dinwiddie, Part 2

I'm your host, Beth Barany. I am an award-winning science fiction and fantasy novelist, writing teacher, creativity coach, and I run this podcast because I believe with science fiction and fantasy stories, we can reshape the world. And my focus is on positive, optimistic stories because what we vision, what we actually envision in our stories, we can help make so in the world. 

BETH BARANY: Welcome back to my conversation with Melissa Dinwiddie. If you missed part one, please go back and take a listen. 

In this episode. I have Melissa explain her F U N method.

And we're going to play a game together.

Enjoy.

You offered to share with us your FUN method. And if you could explain what your fun method is and if you could walk me also through a little process that would be amazing. So we could teach it to folks and we could demo it. And then tie it back somehow to how to write the future. 

[00:00:59] The FUN Method

MELISSA DINWIDDIE: Yeah, absolutely. So my FUN method, it's an acronym. So F stands for Find the Flow.

So that's the part where I'm leading people through some kind of an activity. So often when I tell people that I use play-based methods, or particularly if I tell people that I use improv, they will often jump to the conclusion that I'm doing some kind of role playing.

I rarely do role playing. There is definitely a place for that. But it's rarely with the clients that I work with, rarely are we doing role playing. There'll be some kind of activity some kind of a game. I don't necessarily use the word game but it's a game.

It may seem like it has nothing to do with leadership or communication or whatever it is that we're working on, but that's what we're doing right now. If the F-- Find the Flow, we're playing some kind of a game. 

The U stands for Unlock the Meaning. 

And that's when we come back together for the debrief discussion.

And that is where the participants start to connect the dots between this game that we just played, this activity that we just did, and what that has to do with their day-to-day life, or with leadership or communication or whatever it is that we happen to be addressing or talking about or whatever.

And they're the ones who are in charge of the learning at this point. 

I'm not giving them a lecture.

It's not death by PowerPoint.

I'm just asking them questions, and they're the ones who are having the aha moments and having the light bulbs go off over their heads.

As a result, this is really sticky. They're creating the learning themselves. 

So, N stands for Name the Change. Another N is Now What? 

[00:02:56] Experiment

MELISSA DINWIDDIE: So, my programs are multiple sessions, and at the end of each session, I always ask people, what is your number one takeaway from the time that we've just spent together, and how are you gonna apply it?

What's an experiment that you're gonna run between now and the next time we meet? 

And by experiment that can be anything. What I mean by that is really what are you gonna try? Yeah. 

What are you gonna do different and pay attention to between now and when we meet?

Maybe we did a game where we planned a party using the sentence starts: Yes, but.

Versus: Yes, and.

Maybe they're gonna experiment with responding to whenever somebody comes to them with an idea they're going to respond with "yes, and."

They're really gonna practice that and pay attention to how people respond, because maybe they're in the position of being a gatekeeper and they're used to just saying, Nope, that's not gonna work.

Nope, that's not gonna work. Nope. Or Yes, but. Whatever. 

[00:04:01] Yes, And...

MELISSA DINWIDDIE: And now they're gonna really practice saying, "Yes, and I love that idea because blah, blah, blah, blah, blah." And just respond that way even though it's hard for them. And they're just gonna see what kind of response that gives. So that could be their experiment. It could be anything.

So that's the N.

[00:04:17] How did that experiment go?

MELISSA DINWIDDIE: And then the next time we meet, we talk about how did that experiment go? 

And so everybody is listening to everybody else. Usually the teams that I'm working with are fairly small. If they're much bigger than, eight or 10 people, then I'll have them go into smaller groups to share.

So people are hearing, oh, that's so interesting. That person had that experience with that experiment that they ran. I really resonate with that, or that's different. They're all learning from each other and they get to reflect on that before we launch into the next session.

BETH BARANY: So then the next time you all gather, you use the same, after you do that initial like how to go last time with your experiment, then you use your same structure.

You have a game, you have a discussion, a debrief. Will they do the learning? And then, what will be my experiment for the next time?

MELISSA DINWIDDIE: Yeah. And sessions usually have a number of different activities throughout the duration of the session. 

BETH BARANY: I love that your method acronym is so brief. I know you have some other models, but I thought for the purpose of our conversation today is if we wanna play together, do some improv together, and that our listeners who are following along can, and watchers, those on YouTube, can take this also and we could all do it together. Is there something we can do together? 

[00:05:39] A Two-Person Game: I need 3 things

BETH BARANY: Yeah, absolutely. I love two person games. 

One of my favorites is: I need three things. I'll start.

I'll say three things that I need. 

And then the third thing that I say is gonna be the first thing that you say.

So I need a book. I need an island. And I need an umbrella.

Okay, so then I say three things.

So then you say: I need an umbrella, and then you add two more to that. Okay. 

So I need an umbrella. I need colored pens. And I need, a new little coloring notebook. I need a new little coloring notebook.

I need a dog and I need a leash. 

I need a leash. I need a tennis ball and I need some kibble. 

I need some kibble. I need a little bowl. And I need my cat. I absolutely need my cat, and I need my couch, and I need my remote control. 

MELISSA DINWIDDIE: I need my remote control. I need my Roomba and I need a big floor. 

BETH BARANY: I need my big floor.

I need my cat toy. And I need, my Roomba also. 

I need my Roomba. I need a lot of cat hair. And I need an Afghan. Ooh, 

I need my Afghan and I need my pillows, and I need a stormy night. I need a stormy night. I need a warm cabin. And I need a cozy fire. I need a cozy fire. I need my sweetie beside me and I need my cat on the lap.

I. I need my cat on the lap. I need a good novel and I need a cozy pillow. 

I need a cozy pillow. I need my popcorn snack, and I need my fuzzy slippers. I need my fuzzy slippers. I need my warm socks. And I need my cozy pajamas. I need my cozy pajamas. I need my cozy bed. I need my sleep melodic music. 

I need my sleep melodic music.

I need my cozy earphones, and I need good night's sleep. I need a good night's sleep. Oh my gosh. I need daydreaming time and I need to stare out the window. I need to stare out the window. I need a rainstorm coming in and I need to end the drought. 

I need to end the drought and I need fog catchers, and I need to be in nature.

I need to be in nature. I need to take a hike and I need to look at the sky. I need to look at the sky. I need to watch the stars, and I need to see the moon. 

MELISSA DINWIDDIE: I need to see the moon. I need to see the stars, and I need to see my sweetheart. Ooh, 

BETH BARANY: I need to see my sweetheart. I need to give him chocolate and I need to give him a bouquet of flowers.

MELISSA DINWIDDIE: I need to give him a bouquet of flowers. I need to give him a card, and I need to give him a piece of chocolate. 

BETH BARANY: I need to give him a piece of chocolate. I need to eat a piece of chocolate, 

MELISSA DINWIDDIE: and I need to take a walk. I need to take a walk. I need to take a bike ride, and I need to go roller skating.

BETH BARANY: I need to go roller skating. I. I need to dance disco with the roller skates, and I need to revisit the seventies. 

MELISSA DINWIDDIE: I need to revisit the seventies. I need to revisit the eighties, and I do not need to visit, revisit the nineties. I do not need to revisit the nineties, but I want to go to Paris or I need to go to Paris and I need to listen to French radio.

I need to listen to French radio. I need to eat a croissant, and I need a little espresso. I need a little espresso, un petit express, and I need to walk the boulevards and I need to go into story time in French. I need to go into story time in French. I need to buy a book and I need to get a bookmark. 

MELISSA DINWIDDIE: I need to get a bookmark. I need to sink into the novel I'm reading, and I need to work on my novel. 

I need to work on my novel. I need to work on my painting, and I need to work on my new song. Ooh, I need to work on my new song. I love that movement. I need to do some doodling and I need to, oh my God.

All the stuff I need to do For the movie.

We'll stop there. 

Yay. 

BETH BARANY: Oh my God, that was fun. It was a fun exercise to just presence all the things we need and to riff and to be in a shared reality with each other.

[00:09:49] Spontaneity

MELISSA DINWIDDIE: Yeah. Yeah. What was that like to be in the spontaneity of just going without thinking?

BETH BARANY: Very familiar actually. I live with someone who improvs all the time. And we improv a lot together. We play a lot of word games and I've also loosened up a lot over the years. So improv has become very easy. I did take one acting class where part of the class was improv. I found it was very easy.

[00:10:13] Free writing = improv

BETH BARANY: And free writing. I do a lot of free writing, which is very improv oriented. Yeah. I do a lot of what ifs in my story development.

And I do a lot of: let's try this, let's try that. What if this, what if that? 

And to try and find how I want it to go. That's one of my favorite methods for writing is to allow myself to do multiple takes.

Take one, take two, take three.

And, also, I do a lot of timed writing where I just give myself a very nice container and I'm just like, free write. Okay. Okay Beth, what's going on? What's in here? What's inside? Tell me what's up. And I just keep coming back. What's up? What's next? So what do you want?

Just do a lot of inquiry and let myself go wherever, however. If it's a to-do list, it's fine. If it's a rant, it's fine. And I'm with you. I'm like, I'm encouraging people all the time to do that kind of thing with writing, 'cause I'm working with writers to just really loosen up and be open and be in that exploratory discovery phase.

 So I love it. I love that we demoed it. I thought it was also great to connect to the emotional qualities of what we were saying and to be excited about them. And then the bouncing back and forth each others, I thought was a fun way to try on something new that maybe I wouldn't have chosen.

BETH BARANY: Although nothing was odd or strange for me either. But I just thought it's a wonderful game to play. I think people could really have fun with it.

My husband and I play with words, finding words that sound similar, and we'd go back and forth each time with a different word, and then we try and find another word that is similar, all kinds of words.

There's no rule about it, but it just is like a spontaneous game that we play sometimes, playing around with the sounds of words and noticing what it is that we're attracted to. Are we attracted to repeating the beginning of the word at the end of the word? Who knows? It's just, it's about sounds.

MELISSA DINWIDDIE: Cool. That's awesome. 

[00:11:53] Wrap-up for Part 2

I hope you enjoyed part two of my conversation with Melissa Dinwiddie. Please stay tuned for part three, where we will talk about How To Write The Future. And tie that into her wonderful methods.

BETH BARANY: Be sure to check out my World Building Workbook for Fiction Writers, if you want to inject some fun and support into your world building for your science fiction and fantasy story.

That's it for this week, everyone. 

Write long and prosper.