Writing rubbish

I've been writing for the last few years. First thing I wrote was rubbish, the next slightly better and so on until the start of this year.

I spent about six months working on a 15 minute ep and a 30 ep of a sitcom then showed it to some friends who were kind about them being a bit rubbish.

I can see why now. The flaws seem obvious. The characters are a bit dull. The plot doesn't make sense.

I don't have unrealistic expectations. Not everything I write's going to be good. What really bugged me is working on it for six months and not noticing that it was a bit crap.

Is anyone else any good at spotting when they're writing rubbish? Any tips on seeing through the writer's blinkers and assessing the true quality of your script?

The script is the tip of the iceberg, spend a lot more time planning it next time before you start writing. 'Funny' is very different to 'it works'. It has to work first then be funny. People don't make anything as they go along willy nilly until they have a lot of experience and a great talent. Learn the craft of story telling. Without it you will be struggling always in the wilderness. Luckily it isn't all that difficult to learn.

Yeah, that's pretty much been my conclusion is that next stage in my learning to do writing is to get the craft part working (Sitcom Mission book is really good for that).

What I'm frustrated by is not that I wrote something a bit crap, but that I didn't notice until I'd spent far too long on it.

People spend years f**king about with things which is fine for a hobby. But a sitcom has to get other people involved to be 'the thing' it wants to be. Essentially.

Quote: Trinder @ 20th July 2014, 9:04 AM BST

Yeah, that's pretty much been my conclusion is that next stage in my learning to do writing is to get the craft part working (Sitcom Mission book is really good for that).

What I'm frustrated by is not that I wrote something a bit crap, but that I didn't notice until I'd spent far too long on it.

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Yes but as I've said before anything can look crap one day but great on another. I guess you have to re-read it to realise it's crap everyday.

(What a crap comment!)

You have been at it a lot longer than me, and I'm trying stand up so I do under stand that this small bit of advice/view may be not the best but here goes.

A stand up routine with a small story working to a punch line/event has to have some interesting people in the script even for a 1-2 min gag. I tend to write about 8-9 pages (small story) or script if you can call it that, which will equal around 15 mins stage time.

Over a year I have written say 4-5 15 min sketches/ideas, I run these by my friends and family to get a reaction and also explain exactly the look's I would pull or the way I intend to describe the characters I would intend to talk about on stage.
I find this a massive help as to what is funny and not.

Looking at your situation maybe work on a good story/idea, outline this and have a good visual idea as to what the different Characters look like and there funny quirks. This could be a few pages maybe up to 8 so you don't invest to much time, then run this past your friends/ family for their thoughts and ideas for input. This Would cut out the wasted time in writing something for a long period and it then being rejected. One thing I can tell you is comedy like food is so varied, what isnt funny to some one is hilarious to another. Always makes sure you run an idea past people with very different sense of humour, then work out a average from the various script.

Quote: Trinder @ 20th July 2014, 8:23 AM BST

I've been writing for the last few years. First thing I wrote was rubbish, the next slightly better and so on until the start of this year.

I spent about six months working on a 15 minute ep and a 30 ep of a sitcom then showed it to some friends who were kind about them being a bit rubbish.

I can see why now. The flaws seem obvious. The characters are a bit dull. The plot doesn't make sense.

I don't have unrealistic expectations. Not everything I write's going to be good. What really bugged me is working on it for six months and not noticing that it was a bit crap.

Is anyone else any good at spotting when they're writing rubbish? Any tips on seeing through the writer's blinkers and assessing the true quality of your script?

View original

You have to write the rubbish first, to clear the pipes so to speak.

You learn from your mistakes. Hopefully.

Try to figure out what went wrong or why something turned out crap and avoid it next time. And try to stay positive. Even if it means forcing yourself. Each time should get better.

I think it's the planning. The thing I'm doing now, I worked over the plan and was just about to start the actual script where I realised an inconsistency so could change it quite early on.

funny though, you can look at something one day and it seem fine, decent even. Then the next day, it's just a grotesque jumble of words staring back at you.

Quote: Chappers @ 20th July 2014, 1:42 PM BST

(What a crap comment!)

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Try it again tomorrow.

I don't think there's any real way to tell whether you're writing rubbish other than getting feedback from people who know what they're talking about. And quite often, people who are supposed to know what they're talking about, don't. So it's enormously-difficult, even for more experienced writers, to truly know whether or not their latest project is crap. What I do know is I wrote my first sitcom script in 1996 and was so proud that I sent it off to the BBC. I still have the rejection letter and it was actually quite kind considering the awfulness of the script.

The most important thing is the funny. If you can write funny, then all of the other bollocks, story, character development, plots, subplots, correct script layouts etc can be researched and learned. Funny can't. (Just my opinion. Others disagree.)

Just keep writing, seek out educated opinion, trust your instincts, and the 'rubbish' will slowly turn to gold. Then please send your script to me so I can nick it.

True. And the funny lies in the plot mainly. Let's face it ... stripped of plot even Oscar Wilde ain't that funny. Sitcom is about lols not li's.

Also you may not tell if the writing is genius, but if you can't what you have written or not is crap then you are probably a crap writer tone deaf people in my experience don't make good singers. And it's alright to be crap anyway if you are just having fun. If you want more... find something you are good enough to do on a pro basis.

I like the anaology of beautiful flowers growing out of horse shit

But saying that, I've been having the opposite problem recently where I've rewritten things so much I've started forgetting why it was funny in teh firts place

Quote: Mikey88 @ 4th August 2014, 12:32 PM BST

I've started forgetting why it was funny in teh firts place

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Maybe if you had a spell check you'd understand them.