Book Thoughts? - Your Sitcom Mission

Hello All

Someone mentioned a short book to me as it has sections on plotting, which sadly, is not one of my strong points. The book is 'Your Sitcom Mission - Should You Choose To Accept It' by Simon Wright, Declan Hill & John Vorhaus.

I am of course aware of the Sitcom Mission, but I just wanted to gauge opinions of anyone who might have this book or have read it. Is it solely aimed at producing the 15min script for the competition, or does it have a wider use with lots of good insight?

If anyone knows any good books or indeed articles on Plotting then please let me know (as God knows I have tried to find them).

Incidentally, I know that comedy writing books are not everyone's cup of tea, but I like having a small library on the shelf so I try to seek out the good ones.

Thanks in advance.

Def.

*Declaration of interest - I know the author - he was a script consultant on a project I worked on last year*

More specifically about 'story' but with a lot of relevance to plotting-
"The Story Book" by Dvid Baboulene.
It actually includes a good interview with John Sullivan - but generally has a lot of smart things to say.

Google Dan Harmon's Story Circle. A very simple path he follows for every script. Might work well as a guide.

I love Declan and Simon - they have really encouraged me and are genuinely nice people. Simon in particular has listened to my boring, tipsy ramblings without complaint. So I do have a vested interest.

In my opinion, their book is worth a read. It is interesting, has some good ideas and you get a short bit by Jon Vorhaus on the end. Plus it's about £4 on Amazon.

I wouldn't expect it to miraculously solve your story issues though - I'm yet to find a book or potion that does that.

I read the little book of sitcom by Jon Vorhaus which was pretty good.... although nowhere in it did it give me any original ideas for plot lines and structure them for me.
I found reading about other writers' processes and techniques quite helpful. The ones that spring to mind are http://sitcomgeek.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/storylining-plotting-part-1.html http://jamesmoran.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/my-writing-process.html

It is good. It is guided towards the Mission and writing that 15-minute sitcom script in 20 days (or thereabouts) but the points it makes are quite a good summary of a lot of other well-noted sitcom points without dwelling too much on each point. I like it and it certainly seemed to me like something you remind yourself of in the lead up to each Sitcom Mission.

And, hi Def! Long time, no see

Dan

Hello Dan

Yes, I'm back after some time away (not prison...lol)

Thanks for the rec on this book.

Thanks to the other replies too, especially the links to those blogs. Much appreciated!

Def.

Never heard of this book so thanks for briging it up. Think I'll invest in a copy

Quote: blahblah @ September 13 2013, 2:15 PM BST

Never heard of this book so thanks for briging it up. Think I'll invest in a copy

View original

Do. Entirely worth a couple of quid. Plus, it is an excellent procrastination technique. You can pretend you're doing 'writing stuff' when you're really not.

Quote: Jennie @ September 13 2013, 3:50 PM BST

Do. Entirely worth a couple of quid. Plus, it is an excellent procrastination technique. You can pretend you're doing 'writing stuff' when you're really not.

View original

That's what I'm doing now. Should be writing but doing "writing stuff" on these forums.