Hmmm. Now tell me about your childhood

Just sitting at PC in an idle moment wondering what to write next and thought about the dire state of TV at the moment (this current moment BB and two deadly celeb singalong shows)

It seems that this is either what the masses want or what they're going to get like it or lump it. In all three cases there seems to be no scope for comedy writers and add to that the lack of comedy writing from new writers that's actually commissioned.

Indeed there are some established people on here who struggle to get their stuff placed too.

So all this introspection has made me want to ask the question.

Why do we, as aspiring and indeed successful writers, do it?

I'll go first:

I enjoy forming an idea whether it’s a script, a one-liner or a radio / tv sketch and then getting into a form of words that hopefully will convey the idea in a humourous way and one that people will enjoy.

If it sees the light of day somewhere in print or radio then the ‘buzz’ is fantastic and keeps me happy for a while. Of course on those rare occasions, the money is nice too.

So that's me. Now lie down on my couch and let's talk about you.

I pretty much love it when you first conceive an idea and then start trying to make it work in a script or story. To me, those early moments of conception are the best.

I love the stage were your throwing ideas around and it all starts to form from a string of individual ideas into one long script its brilliant feeling I have my flip chart and go made drawing lines linking stuff up shouting THATS IT DAMMIT!! Pass me my beer I need a victory Sip

i love when i get a new idea and i have to make it work, there is something about me that likes to think of something then make it funny, sometimes i think of something and before i writ it down i forget it, on my phone i have text messages to myself voice recordings of bits of stand-up comedy, i just can't seem to write a sit-com, oh well i guess i'll stick to stand-up,

I tend to set oddball personal targets like 'think up 50 possible sitcom ideas' and I just go ahead and write a few sentences/a paragraph on each, nothing more. I got over a hundred out of that exercise. Then I might have a 'characters' period, same idea, dream up 25 characters writing down all I might know about them from a writers standpoint (never mind if that detail doesn't actually end up being stated in dialogue ... I just want to know what they're like). I try to make those characters so real to me that I would instantly recognise them in the street. But they're nevertheless 'scratch built' and none of them are tied to any actor or actress in any series or play I've ever watched ... I avoid that like the plague! Next I might do locations in the same way. If its an interior I could tell you exactly where all the furniture is, pictures on the wall, ways in, ways out, required general props and so on. I actually do a birds-eye plan as well! Exteriors same general idea. I don't try to fit any of these components together until I have loads and loads of them. Then its 'grab one of the series ideas, populate it, decide on location stuff ... and get scripting.
This may all sound like a barmy way of doing things but I personally don't care what anybody (even the 8" gnome that keeps walking across my desk and nicking my pencils) thinks! Admittedly I haven't managed to getting anything accepted yet, and haven't actually done much at all writing-wise for the last 9 years either. Back then I did send off 145 pages of straight TV script to the Writer's Room ... but it came back with one of those nice little rejection slips we all love so much!

Quote: Blenkinsop @ January 9, 2007, 10:12 AM

In all three cases there seems to be no scope for comedy writers and add to that the lack of comedy writing from new writers that's actually commissioned.

Indeed there are some established people on here who struggle to get their stuff placed too.

So all this introspection has made me want to ask the question. Why do we, as aspiring and indeed successful writers, do it?

View original

Having been mucked around by numerous production companies over various scripts, I'm increasingly asking myself why I do it. There are way too many jumped up arseholes occupying the top positions in this business, making it nigh on impossible for a newbie to get their stuff picked up.

Personally I find all the arseing around very annoying and unnecessary - either they want to take a gamble on it or they don't. Still, what can you do - kidnap the head of the production company and tell them that they'll be sleeping with the fishes if they don't commission your script?!? It's tempting but...

Ignore me. I'm just feeling sorry for myself following my latest rejection - tells me that it's a great script and then takes six months to make a decision before sending a 'thanks but no thanks' email

Hi Wheeler

I can sympathise with you there as I have been down that road myself before.
The initial elation and excitement when interest is shown in your project. The months of agony waiting for something to happen and finally the polite no!

Chin up lad! In the words of Chumbawamba

"I get knocked down but I get up again"

....Runs into room....I thought I heard a unruly drunken sing song..oh just Chumbawamba. I've got some cheese for you all read? "Nothing worth doing is easy"...no that made even me feel queasy

Quote: Blenkinsop @ January 9, 2007, 6:44 PM

Chin up lad! In the words of Chumbawamba

"I get knocked down but I get up again"

View original

Cheers, Blenkinsop. It's incredibly frustrating but you're right. You have to keep at it, even if the chances of success appear to be slim.

I just like writing funny stuff, and I always have. hopefully at some point it will get me somewhere, but if not I know Ill still be filling up pad after pad with silly scripts.

Nothing will stop people with some sort of creative talent from doing whatever it is they do ... whether they're successful at it or not! Throughout history its always been the same. There's enormous pleasure in the 'doing' and in my opinion, if anyone actually takes any notice of what I do, or I make some money out of it, then its pure bonus! I play music, paint and write. Its possible I'm pretty naff at all three (my family think I'm bonkers most of the time!) but I'm not going to stop doing any of those things. Far more people who go in for creative pursuits never make any kind of living out of it than the small number who do. Its a fact. But who's going to stop while there's as much of a buzz in the 'process' as there is in the potential reward?