Power2Improv

Be specific.

Picture a table in a restaurant. Can you see it? Chances are your image is a little fuzzy and undeveloped, the words bringing up a general impression of a place without detail, a sort of generic impression of restaurantness which may change from moment to moment as your mind wanders. Or, you may have pictured an actual restaurant from your past which may not have been what I had in mind at all, and might, in fact, have been incompatible with my vision if, say, I had asked you to go on to imagine examining the fine silverware while your image had been of a cheap burger joint.
Now, picture a five star French restaurant with starched white table cloths and stiff tux clad waiters. Or a southern bar-b-que shack with rough wooden picnic tables and a chalkboard menu. Or a Parisian sidewalk cafe with a view of the Eiffel Tower. Or a fast food stand, with plastic tables and plastic food. Or an International House of Pancakes. Or a British Pub. The more specific we are in our images the clearer they will be in our minds, and the more easily we transmit that specificity to the audience the clearer these images will be for them. And, the clearer they are, the more real they will be. It is by giving them these images in detail that the scene's reality will be shared by all.
So, be specific! This means making choices early on as to what those details will be, and sticking to them. There are no wrong decisions at this point, any specific choice will help to establish the Where in our minds, piece by piece, as we create the reality of this scene.
Suppose we have a scene that is to take place in an office. Well, what kind of office? A lawyer's office? An accountant's office? The oval office? It would be easy to simply establish a desk and a telephone and go from there, but if your conception of where you are is fuzzy it will certainly be so for the audience. Make a decision. These places will all be different in some way.
Let's make it a stockbroker's office. Before you say a word you should be able to communicate a sense of where you are through what you do. If you were suddenly transported to a broker's office you would probably be able to tell where you were just by looking around. The objects around you would give it away instantly. Just as a set designer and property master of the formal stage must decide what telling objects to include on the set, you must produce them in your space. And, just as an actor on the formal stage would never walk around the set before a scene and describe where he was and point out those objects, you must bring them to life by using them.
In our broker's office, there's probably a stock ticker or some sort of trading board. Read off some numbers. Much trading is done by computer these days, so go ahead and type in a trade. Pick up the telephone, dial, and advise your customer (Who? Detail again, "Mr. Trump, about Amalgamated Widget ...") to sell something. And, finally, open your window and invite your boss to come in off of the ledge. Now, we're in a stockbroker's office and no one had to come right out and say it. Specific details did the job painlessly.