(Interior, evening in an impossibly clean yet homey apartment. A woman in her 30s, playing a woman in her 20s sits at her laptop, a large cup of tea untouched at her side. She is in her pyjamas and yet she has on a full face of make-up. And, though it is bedtime, she is still wearing a bra.)
[The woman grins. She has had an idea. She begins to type eagerly.]
Voice over: When I teach creative writing I often talk about “storytelling” as opposed to fiction writing. I use examples of storytelling techniques from film and TV as well as literature. And I encourage my students to think about their favourite characters, plots, settings regardless of whether they find them on screen or the page.
A great deal of what I have learnt about writing has come from hours and hours (and a pandemic) watching and rewatching favourite shows and listening to behind-the-scenes podcasts about how these sitcoms (and dramedies) came together. I’ve also come to some of my storytelling rules as a result of the Big Opinions I have about the more outrageous plot points in my otherwise favourite shows.
So pour yourself an oversized mug of coffee, grab a pop tart or some shrampies, enter the trendy loft of your writing dreams and let me tell you all about the rules I have stolen from sitcom and dramedy writers.
“Nine-Nine!”: The Writers’ Room
Jake Peralta: I appealed to their sense of teamwork and camaraderie with a rousing speech that would put Shakespeare to shame.
Captain Holt: And that worked?
Jake Peralta: No.
Rule 1) Make use of your ego and crowd-source your problems.
TV writing is (usually) a collaborative effort brought about by the work of a showrunner as well as a team of other writers. Now, the idea of co-writing a novel with a group of 7 or 8 other people gives me the shivers BUT there is something undeniably sensible about the way TV writers will toss around various plot ideas, and structural problems and pitch multiple options for dialogue, drama and jokes.
It is often said that the key to the success of showrunners like Mike Schur (The Good Place, Brooklyn 99) and Greg Daniels (The US Office, Parks and Rec) is their willingness to collaborate not only with other writers but guest directors and actors too.
A TV writer friend of mine pointed out that a fun sense of competition can also spur you on to write more and push yourself to pitch better material.
Writing does not have to be a lonely, grinding journey punctuated by chain smoking and too much whisky. Ask for help and advice from your writing friends. Foster a sense of competitive camaraderie. Even Mr-Lone-Wolf-Toxic-Masculinity himself Ernest Hemingway asked for help from Gertrude Stein and Fitzgerald.
“Holy Motherforking Shirtballs” - Eleanor Shellstrop
Rule 2) Serve up the good stuff early and trust you’ll have more ideas to come.
Speaking of Mike Schur, here’s a rule I stole straight from him: don’t save your one best idea for the one GREAT scene of your story. Instead, jump straight in with it and then come up with another best idea.
The Good Place starts with an unusual premise: Eleanor has ended up in heaven (aka The Good Place) when she should be in hell (The Bad Place). She then tries to avoid being discovered. Almost any other showrunner would have chosen to build the show around this premise for one or two seasons before Elenor is discovered. Not Mike Schur. The reveal comes in episode eight. Of season one.
But there’s more. The big twist, the genius twist. The “Holy Mother Forking Shirtballs” moment that honestly COULD have been saved for a good few seasons comes at the final of season one. Again and again, Schur chooses to give the audience a big juicy twist and then immediately roll on to the next better, more bizarre idea.
We should not save the expensive perfume or the good candles for “best” and neither should we keep that one big good idea for the end of the story. Instead, we should trust ourselves to invent one exciting event after another. Ideas that leave no room for filler.
“To me, crazy is not someone who has a creative vision and will fight for it.” - Amy Sherman-Palladino
Rule 3) Trust your gut and don’t underestimate your audience.
While Gilmore Girls was often characterised as that girls’ show where they talk really fast, Amy Schurman-Palladino’s dramedy was in the same time slot as Friends when it aired on TV and continues to be in Netflix’s top ten most streamed shows beating big hitters like Seinfeld and Stranger Things. Evidently, the sepia-toned, caffeine-infused show is doing something right.
It originally aired on the CW/WB and was advertised as a show for teens. However, ASP does not patronise her audience one bit. Her scripts came in twice as long as the average TV episode and are choc full of historical, political and pop-culture references many of which went further back than her own Gen-X history. And yet, the show carries hoards of loyal fans and still gathers new ones every year. Some of us get the BTK references and have to work out Pushkin ones but these references are vital to the language of the show and the world of Stars Hollow. Without them, many argue that Gilmore Girls loses its special sauce.
The show ran for 7 seasons BUT A.S.P was only showrunner for 6 of them. The 7th season is considered by some die-hard fans as a sad zombie version of a much more nuanced show. Kevin T. Porter and Demi Adejuyigbe of the Gilmore Guys podcast made the point that the references in the 7th season seem noticeably oversimplified, over-explained and arbitrary. They argue that this results in well-known, much-loved characters appearing like fan-fic versions of themselves. The show ended with that 7th season.
So the lesson I take from A.S.P: assume that your audience is as clever or more clever than you. Don’t let anyone tell you to dumb down your work. Fight for your vision of the project you are working on.
I hope you’ve enjoyed PART I of “What Fiction Writers Can Learn From Comedy Writers”. Subscribe (for free!) to have PART II delivered to your inbox as soon as it’s published.
Creative Writing Exercise
The Punch-Up
The “Punch-Up” is a process by which TV writers will take a script or a scene that is working and try to add jokes or dialogue that pushes it from being a fine scene into an excellent scene.
Pick a scene from your work in progress or a short story that feels just “fine” and push yourself to add new elements to make it punchier.
If you are brave enough, pick one or two people who write themselves or at least read regularly and ask them to brainstorm ideas with you to make it a better scene.
OR
Don’t have a scene or story to work on?
Try out this prompt:
Write a scene (or story) in which two close friends or family members ( Character A and Character B) meet a new character (Character C).
Character A warms to Character C immediately while Character B does not. Show how the conflict would unfold from there.