All advice is relative to where you are
Not all teachings will resonate with you so it's ok to drop it and find your own answer
At some point in your journey, you will hit a wall. The bad news is this will happen regularly as you look to improve your craft, but the good news is that it’s also a sign of progress.
Hitting a wall usually means that something isn’t working for you at this moment. While it takes time for that period to pass, the usual reason is adjusting your approach, letting go of expectations, or a mixture of the two.
During this period, there’s a temptation to seek advice and tips to break the deadlock. A tip about how to play a character, a template for a scene, or an alternative method for thinking up new premises will feel like the solution, but only because when you’re searching for one, potential answers will appear everywhere.
I’m not the first person to say this, but usually, the first reason is that we’re so deep into trying to master the medium that we haven’t been given any real time to digest what we’ve learnt. Unfortunately, you can’t rush understanding, and when there’s pressure to get from A to B as quickly as possible, you will hit roadblocks.
Those roadblocks are usually due to unmet expectations. Whatever the reason, such expectations tend to be internal, which effectively means we are adding extra pressure on ourselves.
All advice is relative to where you are and works on the condition that you assess whether it fits your current situation. What is great advice for one person will be less useful to another.
For example, slowing things down is a standard piece of advice because it applies to so much. It’s excellent advice for someone who barrels through dialogue and barely gives their scene partner a chance to react.
It’s less valuable if their problem sees them unable to walk out on stage in the first place.
Really, whether something is useful or not depends on the person, and such advice usually requires a follow-up question or two to assert its usefulness properly.
It’s also a good reminder that not everything will resonate with you, so if an approach or philosophy feels abstract, it’s okay to find your own answer to it.
All of this will fill out the map in your head that determines your voice and approach to improv. The more you fill out, the more pathways you have to get from A to B, and during it, you may find your own approach that works best for you.
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