Plot ideas question

Hi guys

I'm starting to put together bits and pieces for a sitcom set in a record shop. This is my first writing project. I've started making a list of simple plot ideas for episodes - just one word things like 'hoax', 'drugs', 'robbed', etc, (I don't know if this is a good starting place or not - any more tips much appreciated!)and I find that a lot of these ideas are used in things like Black Books and other sitcoms.

Is there anyway around this? I suppose the answer would be "be more imaginative and original!" but could one get away with using the same plot idea as another sitcom, just adding a couple more differences?

Thanks.

Your plots should come out of your characters not the other way round. Create conflicting characters, give them different attributes and then use these to come with plots where these attributes can conflict.

Note: easier said than done.

Quote: ContainsNuts @ June 1 2009, 8:50 AM BST

Your plots should come out of your characters not the other way round.

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Agree with CN.

Consider also, that the characters in something similar (like BBooks), will react differently to your charachters placed in the same scenario (like being robbed). So although a one word plot idea may sound the same, the initial character reactions to the inciting incident (e.g. someone pulls out a gun) and eventually the resolution of the plot will take a different route because your characters reacted in a way which was true to themselves.

Quote: shaggy292 @ June 1 2009, 8:31 AM BST

Hi guys

I'm starting to put together bits and pieces for a sitcom set in a record shop.

View original

Call it something like Rudy's Rare Records, set it in Birmingham, and have Lenny Henry as the main star.

Quote: ContainsNuts @ June 1 2009, 8:50 AM BST

Your plots should come out of your characters not the other way round. Create conflicting characters, give them different attributes and then use these to come with plots where these attributes can conflict.

Note: easier said than done.

View original

This made me think: is this not how you'd write a low-concept sitcom? The high-concept sitcom would be one that was idea-driven.

I know people say it's all about character (which it is) but that doesn't mean the character can't come out of the initial concept (ie a bloke who's found an alleyway back to the war would lead to the character, as otherwise they could be totally wrong for the part).

Dan

It IS all about character, but you've got to have them do something interesting. Otherwise why am I going to sit down once a week and watch these people? If I want interesting charactrs going nowhere I'll just go for a drink with my mates.

When I write books, I approach the subject the other way around. In sitcom writing I devise the character first. Books are a different beast, in my mind. A book has to follow a tight plot with little deviation to produce the path and ending that you want. In that instance I compose a plot and using that plot I can work out the characters needed to make the story happen.

For instance, in books I ask what kind of person chooses to react in this way when faced with a predetermined circumstance. In a sitcom I ask what circumstance will push these predetermined characters to their limits.

Of course with books, as with plays and films, the characters have to go on a journey, and learn something over the course of the story. In sitcoms they traditionally learn nothing. And by the end should be in exactly the same place as they started.

I'm not sure about all this "high concept"/"low concept" business. A good comedy is a good comedy. Anything that works will always have had the writer thinking beyond their characters and situation. There is always a "what is this show about?" concept.

As regards plots, I find they evolve from a basic idea, based on a way one of my characters might react to a situation. When I start writing a first draft, I am usually only completely sure of the first couple of scenes. Things the characters do or say then open up sub-plot strands and give ideas of how to develop the basic plot. Once a first run script is done, then it's a lot of "ironing" (smoothing out scenes to aim towards the plot) and tying little plot ideas together in a way that seems credible and funny.

I can't write a detailed plot before I start to write. I find plots incredibly annoying as all I really want to do is show my characters. As has been said, a basic one-note plot idea is OK, as long as its developed as a story by your characters. Comedy where the characters become subservient to the plot are rarely funny, because the plot dictates the characters' behaviour, rather than the other way around. That's why intricate plotting, epitomised by Fawlty Towers, is so hard to make funny except by having exceptionally strong characters.

Not that it matters much, but I have a sitcom set in a record store with one producer over @ MTV. *ego inflates*

Quote: hotzappa11 @ June 1 2009, 12:53 PM BST

Not that it matters much, but I have a sitcom set in a record store with one producer over @ MTV. *ego inflates*

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Congrats *tears up old idea for record shop sitcom*

Thanks one and all.

And curses to hotzappa

Mwahahahaha... okay, that's enough. Thank you though. I actually feel like I'm getting somwhere for once. Still, I bet there dozens of record shop sitcoms floating around.

Quote: hotzappa11 @ June 1 2009, 9:57 PM BST

Mwahahahaha... okay, that's enough. Thank you though. I actually feel like I'm getting somwhere for once. Still, I bet there dozens of record shop sitcoms floating around.

View original

Well there aren't dozens of record shops anymore. All I've got here is HMV, Morrisons and Asda who sell records and they all sell the same old shit.

(In spite of the fact I bought five 70s albums today)

True & it's really sad. My sitcom is about a record shop trying to survive.