I find that writing is often similar to doing a jigsaw. You come up with a handful of different ideas, and suddenly you find a way to fit them all together.
A single 'Eureka' moment? Page 2
Agreed. And often as you're writing, a good gag you come up for in one scene will often suggest a new idea to link it to another. In the script I'm currently working on I was spending days, when I first started, thinking of how the episode should end, but then something that just appeared in an early scene, suggested a fitting idea for the denouement.
It's often the little gag ideas you come up with whilst actually writing the script which can help to strengthen the plot. It's sometimes just a question of picking up on them and linking them together.
Quote: catskillz @ September 30 2009, 1:28 AM BSTI find that writing is often similar to doing a jigsaw. You come up with a handful of different ideas, and suddenly you find a way to fit them all together.
I find it is the bits in between that cause the most stress. I find it takes me about three drafts for it to make any sense.
This possibly sounds stupid, but sometimes it's best to worry about the humour after you've achieved a first draft which is structurally sound.
Naturally, try to get good lines flowing from your characters whilst writing the first draft, but more importantly get their tone of voice right and establish what each scene is actually about - i.e. what is its function in the overall plot?
I think people often get fixated on getting each scene as funny as possible before moving onto writing the next, which can lead to depressingly slow progress. A lot of the laughs will come from meticulously re-drafting a script anyway, so why cause yourself worry by expecting to nail the scene first time around?
Quote: catskillz @ September 30 2009, 1:28 AM BSTI find that writing is often similar to doing a jigsaw. You come up with a handful of different ideas, and suddenly you find a way to fit them all together.
And then you get to the end and find one piece missing. So you take a similar-looking piece from a different jigsaw, nibble off the edges that don't fit, and bung it in.
How about that for a script-related tenuous jigsaw-y analogy?
Quote: Lee Henman @ September 30 2009, 2:48 AM BSTHow about that for a script-related tenuous jigsaw-y analogy?
that's got to be the best one I've ever heard.
Quote: Nogget @ September 29 2009, 9:07 PM BSTWhen you started writing, did you find your work got progressively better, or was there a single 'Eureka' moment when it started to all happen, and if so, what made it happen at that time?
The only eureka moment I ever had was when I "illegally" entered an age 16+ short story contest when I was 12, and won. And by 'eureka', I mean it momentarily distracted me from sitting in my room, hating the world and everyone in it, to actually thinking I might have a talent. But then I got interested in music, and pissed my youth away in a succession of cack bands, and never really picked up writing again until much, much later. Positive stuff has happened since then, but I'm still waiting on "Eureka Moment 2".
Quote: Ronnie Anderson @ September 30 2009, 2:59 AM BSTthat's got to be the best one I've ever heard.
If there's another created, I shall kill the author.
Was wondering if any of you more experienced writers ever use improv as a way of coming up with characters.
I am starting to find smetimes just putting on a slightly different accent to my own can instantly get me into a character that it'd take hours to create backstory for etc... by tradional methods.
Quote: Lee Henman @ September 30 2009, 3:03 AM BST
If there's another created, I shall kill the author.
Not quite the same but a very similar analogy in a book due out next summer, not to do with writing mind. Please don't kill the author!
Mine was after I wrote my first piece, read it back and thought "I'm so f**king funny! 
Interesting to see how other people write and plan. I tend to start with character and dialogue and see where it goes. Maybe it's not the best way to write...
Always start with the title. And then change it.
Not sure about eureka, but there was definitely a point, about eighteen months ago, where I finished a draft of a sitcom pilot I was working on, and was certain I'd got to the point where a producer might be interested in my longer form work. Turned out I was right, so that was an important turning point for me.
I spent about four months writing a 30-minute monologue, it was the most difficult bit of writing I'd ever done but it did absolute wonders for my understanding of character.
I happen to think that creating a script is more like weaving an intricately patterned persian silk rug than building a jigsaw. Something to do with pulling threads together and creating a whole that's greater than the sum total of it's parts, with a bit about the writer sitting at a loom and stuff... was going to blog it but couldn't be arsed thinking it through.
so I guess I'm safe then
I always find that I think of a 'brilliant' idea just before I fall asleep - which either means getting up to write it down (and having to try to get back to sleep again) or falling asleep convinced I'll remember it in the morning but I never do...
Either that or going for a run seems to get the creative juices flowing.
From my understanding of writing, if it was a jigsaw, you'd end up taking out several of the most attractive pieces because the whole looks nicer with those bits missing.