In Improvising Screenplays, improvisational actor Brett Wean shares how the concepts of improvisation can be applied to the work — and play — of writing your script.
There are a few general, arbitrary-sounding, scene types that actors are told to avoid when first learning improv. Specifically, novice improvisers are warned to stay away from: argument scenes, teaching scenes, and negotiations.
I wouldn’t advise you to eschew these types of scenes in your screenwriting. We obviously see all sorts of arguments, teacher/student moments, and negotiations take place in many of the best, most compelling movies and TV shows. But by understanding why improvisers try to avoid them, and how the best theatrical improvisers make them work when they do perform them, you can gain a unique understanding of the specific pitfalls these types of scenes often contain, and learn how to avoid them in your writing.
Why are improvisers warned not to fall into scenes involving teaching, arguments, and negotiations? Because each of these scene types quite often naturally drag the characters into stagnant, back-and-forth moments that keep the action from moving forward. “No!” “Yes.” “No!” Yes.” “No!” While it may be exciting to watch two characters dramatically duke it out via their differing points of view — “drama is conflict” we’re so often told, and that’s true — we have to make sure that we don’t trap our characters into a clinch, like two boxers in a ring, so jumbled together that nothing is actually happening. Scenes need to move forward: two people yelling “No!” “Yes!” “No!” at each other can stop any natural momentum in its tracks.