Reading some of the posts on here and some of the posts on fastseduction, i get the idea that routines are bad. Im a noobie and all i've been using are routines; specifically the spells opener, "who do you think lies more?" opener and a new opener me and my mate made up we call "alien hand syndrome opener" which always get good replies. we've been doing this pickup thing for a week and got 3 numbers out of it and thats about as far as my abilities go so far.

I was in a set today where i went in with the "who do you think lies more" opener, went from that into a routine about our mate that lied to his parents about getting engaged then i hit a wall. i had run out of routines and all i had was my natural charm which worked for a while but i got too nervous and did the whole "well it was good talking to you" thing and just walked away. These were some HB8s who were actually getting into what i had to say. can anyone point me in the right direction here because im a devout MM guy and as far as i know u have to use routines to DHV and create rapport. Is there another way to create rapport and a genuine connection with a person without telling stories?

I'm a newb and I've never used a routine or canned material in my approaches and I still get good responses. The routines might work better in a club environment idk I use direct openers and general conversation. As long as you do it with confidence and don't show signs of being nervous you don't need routines.

If routines work for you then use them, but I think women can tell when you're using canned material.

you go in with a regular opinion opener: "hey guys i wanna ask you're opinion on something real quick, have you ever heard of alien hand syndrome?"
girl: "alien hand syndrome?..."

me:"its a disease that sounds a bit too hilarious for words, basically, whatever you want your left hand to do, it wil do the opposite. so lets say you are at an interview and go to shake the interviewers hand, you might end up slapping him instead"

girl:almost always laughs at this point

me:"that would really come in handy in some situations. i know this girl from school her names [insert name here] and she's just one of those guys thats always got something bad to say about people. so one day i come in all innocent "oh hey [insert name her] hows it going SLAP" oh sorry dude, alien hand syndrome"

an easy 2 minuite story that usually gets some laughs. thanks for the advice man i'll work on some improv.
(oh and BTW, i in no way promote violence to women, this is just a story i made up about a girl who almost doesn't exist)

Haha! I thik the best thing to do is mix routines with improv. So you're being you, but you have something to fall back on