Quote: Kev F @ July 7 2011, 10:22 AM BSTAsk yourself, first, why the hell do you want to write a sitcom? It never ceases to amaze me that thousands of people want to write situation comedies when writing almost anything else would be a much more likely way of making money and entertaining people.
Look at TV. How many sitcoms are there? How many people write them? How long have they been in the business? Now, having answered those questions, how likely do you think it is that you are ever going to get your situation comedy on the telly?
If you want to be a professional writer, why not look at TV writing, beginning with shows like Doctors. Or even better radio writing, the BBC uses the work of a lot of new writers all the time and has lots of opportunities for those willing to turn their hand to radio plays, short stories or indeed comedy.
If you want to entertain people, have you thought of stand up comedy? Or if that's too daunting, how about play writing for the stage. Every year the Edinburgh Fringe is full of teams of actors crying out for plays to perform.
Or why not write a screenplay or a novel? You could publish your novel yourself and find an audience instantly. And a completed screenplay has a chance, however remote, of getting optioned. Because there a lot of movies made every day. There are hardly any sitcoms made, especially in the UK. Ever.
Why sitcom? Do people think it's easier than other forms of writing? Cos it's not. You have to learn the skills and techniques of storytelling and scriptwriting, as in other forms, THEN you have be funny. Which most people simply aren't.
I speak as someone who has himself tried writing sitcom frequently over the last 20 years, with some limited success (two radio pilots and a TV series of The Sitcom Trials) and can't explain why he thought it was a good idea. But now I am happily writing other things and, delightfully, getting paid to do it. I'd love to write my own sitcom, but it's dropped way down my list of priorities. I'd be interested to learn why it's so high on many other peoples.
Kev F http://sitcomtrials.co.uk
Brilliant list, and a very good example of futility. The title is about the least important part of any sitcom.
It reminds me of the time our band tried to find a new name. There were 5 of us in the band. Each of us went away and wrote down a few names. I say a "few" names. Each of us came back with around 200 names. That left us sat in a pub staring at one thousand names for bands. Trust me, after the first dozen you start to glaze over. The novelty is well and truly gone by the time you've read a hundred.
We ended up giving ourselves the worst name anyone ever gave a band: Private Party. We thought it sounded cool and sophisticated. What we didn't realise was that, if you're playing in a room above a pub and you put a sign outside reading "Private Party", no bugger comes up to watch you!
Kev F
You don't choose your muse, it chooses you.
I've got stories to tell, but they're all humerous (at least I hope so).
I can't write romance, police procedurals because they're not an itch I need to scratch.
And if they never get picked up, so what? I had fun writing them.
that non-BCG members seem to be finding the free number