Mprov
| Synonyms: | *mprov |
| See also: | prompt |
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An mprov was, properly speaking, an *mprov (="improv")--a joke off of *NSYNC (="in sync"). Mprovs were a writing practise in popslash that first sprang up on IRC with some of the earliest writers in the fandom (possibly invented by CJ Marlowe and Dayse.) When it began, the idea was that people gathered in an IRC chatroom; one person volunteered to write, and everyone else gave them a word or a phrase that had to be worked into a story that was written on the spot. The only other requirement was that it had to feature at least one member of *NSYNC.[1] At one time, CJ maintained an archive of many of the mprovs on mediageek.ca, the domain which houses her website; they were simply titled with the words that were given as prompts.[2]
Later, the tradition moved onto AIM and livejournal, and the practise changed (and possibly also began to lose the association with the term "mprov"); usually the writer asked for a pairing and three words. You then had a set amount of time, generally an hour, to write a story including those elements. Although for obvious reasons an mprov had to be short, in many ways it was the opposite of the drabble—instead of being haiku-like and intensely disciplined, it was loose and spontaneous, because there wasn't any time to second-guess or edit. The best mprovs had some of the same high-wire-act excitement as a live improv show where actors are struggling to incorporate audience prompts in a natural, funny way, especially when they were actually written "live", with the author's friends watching each sentence roll out.
Popslash also featured "picprovs" (where a writer worked from a picture provided by someone else, rather than three words). Julad maintained a page with pictures and story links for picprovs on Temporary Insanity. Both genres are closely related to flashfiction and to commentfic.
Georgina hosts an Mprov Toy on juppy.org, a random generator for emergency moments when you don't have a friend nearby to prompt you.
References
- ^ About *Mprov Club, from CJ's website.
- ^ *Mprov club: October 9-15, 2000--this is the earliest dated page with story links. The index page is here. (All links accessed 16 April 2011, via wayback.)