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Mandy Khoshnevisan

Goodreads Author

Born

Thousand Oaks, CA, The United States

Twitter

mandanakhosh

Genre

Nonfiction, Humor and Comedy, Children's

Member Since

July 2013

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Mandy Khoshnevisan has been performing, teaching, and directing theater and improvisation for just about 20 years. She grew up in southern California somewhat near the ocean, which was a nice place to live. She first met improv in 1996 as a freshman at Stanford University, where she went on to receive her B.A. and M.A. in English. Since becoming a teaching artist, she has worked with children from elementary to high school. In the Bay Area she performed with many improv groups including BATS Improv and the Un-Scripted Theater Company. Currently she lives in Portland, OR, where she teaches at Northwest Children's Theater, performs scripted and unscripted theater, and does all sorts of artistic work. Managed Mischief is her first book. ...more

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How do you deal with writer’s block?

Mandy Khoshnevisan My improv training has taught me that it's much, much better to just write SOMETHING and move on, than it is to sit and search for the "right thing." …moreMy improv training has taught me that it's much, much better to just write SOMETHING and move on, than it is to sit and search for the "right thing." If I'm stuck, I'll just write whatever's in my brain. I find that when I "can't think of anything," it's either because I'm actually thinking of too MANY things, I'm only thinking of "dumb things," or I'm trying write myself to a place I've already thought of but I can't figure out the transition from here to there.

In all instances, I've found that the best way to get past that is just to write down the dumb thing I'm thinking of and move on, even if that thing is something like, "Blah blah somehow a miracle happens fix this part later."

You can always erase, edit, or just throw away something. Improv has taught me that, rather than thinking of inspiration as a precious precious resource that can be used up, and that I better stop thinking of things before I use up all my ideas, "inspiration" is more just about trusting my ideas and being confident that yep, some of my ideas are better than others but I will never run out of them, and that ideas beget more ideas. It gives me perspective and the confidence to make a lot of "imperfect" content that I can play with, instead of fretting and sweating and getting hung up over creating one "perfect" thing that may never ever live up to my dream of how it should be.

(For more on improv and creative confidence, you can check out my book, "Managed Mischief!" ;o)(less)

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What’s your advice for aspiring writers?

Mandy Khoshnevisan (Edit: I guess my advice for aspiring writers is pretty similar to my earlier-penned advice for conquering writer's block! But I do believe it's true:…more(Edit: I guess my advice for aspiring writers is pretty similar to my earlier-penned advice for conquering writer's block! But I do believe it's true: getting out of your own way will help you move forward. Put your critical brain in a box somewhere and let your delighted brain steer the writing process. Let yourself surprise yourself by the thing you made. And don't let your critical brain erode your perspective and cause you to believe that any one piece of writing is precious, magical, and in constant danger of being ruined. Have a fun time writing, and fix it in post.)

On the act of writing itself:
My advice would be to just write something. Using your favorite writing tool (computer, pen-on-paper, finger-in-ketchup, whatever), put some words down. Don't know exactly how to word the thought in your head? Just write the most obvious things down. Write a lot of dumb sentences down. Fix them later and just keep going. When you're done, call it done. Congratulate yourself on writing a thing!

Produce a piece of writing. Then produce another one. (Or maybe get unstuck from the middle of a piece of writing by writing another piece of writing instead!) As an improvisor, one thing I've learned is that creativity leads to more creativity; you're not going to "use up" your brain power by writing too many things. The act of creation may feel scary, and creating a product and calling it "finished" may be even more terrifying—but once you've finished one piece, you're free to start another one.

If you write one thing in your entire life, that's gotta be one darn amazing thing. But if you write two things, that's 100% more things than you had before! The more you write (or maybe even just the more you imagine that you'll one day *have written*), the less scary and precious each individual piece becomes, and the less dangerous it feels to finish it.

Don't be a Mr. Casaubon!* Finish that "life's work" and keep going on past it! (Says the person who's only published one book, so far ... but I've also written a lot of dumb sentences in my life.) Good luck!

(*See "Middlemarch")(less)

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Mandy Khoshnevisan’s books

Average rating: 4.6 · 5 ratings · 1 review · 2 distinct works

	Managed Mischief: A Toolkit of Improv-Inspired Games 4.60 avg rating — 5 ratings — published 2016 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Math Universe: Episodes in a Space Opera (Part 1) 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Mandy Khoshnevisan's Blog

Hi Goodreads!

Hi Goodreads! I decided to start a blog! So here we go! Greetings! I've got one book up on Goodreads (Managed Mischief: A Toolkit of Improv-Inspired Games, which if you're seeing this, I guess you know already? It's a book with simple and delightful creative improv-style theater and writing and art games to play with kids, and also some background on how to teach and play them to get the most out Read more of this blog post »

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