28 Days Later... Day 12: Marc Blake
Thursday 13th February 2014
Newbie sitcom writers - and some experienced ones as well - have the most problems in coming up with a halfway decent plot.
The major reason for this is that life does not have plots. Life is a series of random unfortunate and fortunate events that happen to us whether we like it or not. Sometimes a plan comes together, sometimes it doesn't (if mine had, I would not be here, writing this is in my pants). However, in drama, you must impose a plot: In sitcom it is vital that a protagonist, upon receiving a catalyst - a letter, a visit, a change in their everyday circumstances - must ACT upon it. Our hero (or anti-hero) will usually do what we would NOT do, that is to say, act without embarrassment or fear or with due concern for others. This, in turn, will set off a series of events (which are a direct result of the character's actions) resulting in escalations, panic comedy and in some cases, farce.
This has a logic to it. Underneath that there may be a subplot, one that echoes the main plot but does not usurp it. The problem with new writers is that they either throw everything in, believing it to be funny (it isn't) or have no plot at all (nothing happens) or there are multiple plot strands, all seeking attention but none are developed (they are terrified of writing about character). If you have done your homework properly in creating credible characters in an emotional arena from which they cannot escape, then the merest soupcon of plot is enough. Look at Hancock. Look at Steptoe. Look at The Office.
Fawlty Towers and its American cousin, Frasier, are, to my mind, the greatest examples of farcical plotting. In both cases they begin with a real event. The builders or Germans are due. The inspector is coming - a plot so successful that Cleese and Booth borrowed it from Gogol.
The protagonists, Basil and Frasier, act credibly and in accord with their world view: selfishly and with their own pompous agendas. Beautiful chaos ensues. Hubris. Lightning in a bottle.
Please spend a lot of time figuring out plot. Study drama. Study sitcom. Study anything but real life, because it won't teach you anything about the contrivance that is plot.
[i]Marc Blake is the author of How NOT To Write Sitcom (A&C Black) as well as How to be a Sitcom Writer and How to be a Comedy Writer (Andrews UK). He is a comedy consultant for BBC Three and the Dave channel, as well as for thousands of writers on his website www.writingsitcom.co.uk. He is a published author of five novels and a former stand-up with 20 years' experience, as well as having had his own BBC Radio 4 series and numerous television appearances. However, he once ticked the box marked 'No publicity' - so you won't have heard of him.