without some effort. However, since you are the teacher, you determine what assignments will be required. Since you’re also the student, you have veto power over those homework requirements. You can’t eliminate them, but you can manipulate them so that even though they are challenging, they’re also fun and beneficial.
Some exercises are suggested in this text for you to apply and practice. The companion volume to this book, Comedy Writing Self-Taught Workbook, has plenty of practice drills to work on to help you learn different skills associated with comedy writing. Not all of them will apply to the type of writing you’re interested in, but you’re free to pick and choose which ones you’ll work on.
It’s commendable if you take some of these exercises and alter them slightly to create drills of your own. That’s really teaching yourself to write comedy.
And with any of these practice assignments you’re not limited to a due date. Take as much or as little time to complete them as you wish. There’s no penalty for being late. That’s just another perk of self-teaching.
I’ve enjoyed teaching various forms of writing for several years now. I enjoy it. It’s exciting to see other people get enthused about the craft. It’s gratifying to have students get published or land jobs in television or writing for comics. And strangely enough, it’s educational, too. I used to run a yearly seminar for comedy writers. A colleague of mine, a television writer, would return year after year as part of our faculty. It was quite generous of him because we were not that generous to him. He worked each year without pay. One time I asked him, “Why do you return year after year to teach here?” He said, “Because I learn so damn much.”
But there are times when teaching can be troublesome, too. Many times in a room full of people, one or two can be annoying. Some students ask questions so that they can answer them themselves. They want to show you and the other students that they know more than you do about this particular topic. A few students will try to dominate the class dialogue. Occasionally, a student will challenge the information you offer. Some students demand full attention while they give a presentation but talk constantly while others are presenting. A few students try to dominate all discussions and turn every lesson taught in the direction of their particular project.
It’s usually my responsibility as the teacher to control these disturbances. Sometimes I succeed; sometimes I just get frustrated. In any case, I can usually see the annoyance in the other students. They’ve paid money and sacrificed their time to attend class, yet one or two people disrupt the class and interfere with the learning process.
The beauty of self-teaching is that you’re the professor and, more important, you’re the only student in the class. You’re free from these distractions and annoyances. Isn’t it wonderful to be in such a small, dedicated class?
One final benefit of self-teaching is that it’s readily available. All that’s required is you and your desire to learn to write. For many, self-teaching may be the only option. Comedy writing classes, unless you live in show business cities like New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, or Las Vegas, are not readily available.
Of course, there are classes offered through the Internet, but the costs may be prohibitive. One thing you can be sure of—if you’re teaching yourself, you can’t beat the tuition.
Although this book is dedicated to teaching yourself to write comedy, that’s not to condemn any formal education, classes, workshops, clubs, or seminars. If you’re interested in writing comedy, get as much information as you can from wherever you can. At the same time, though, continue to teach yourself. Keep observing, analyzing, studying, and practicing. The secret to success in any endeavor is to become good at what you do and then to keep getting better . . . and better . . . and better.
And, of course, to have fun while doing it.
Two Concepts You Can Teach Yourself Immediately
Many of the exercises in this book require considerable time to complete. A few of the lessons require practice and patience in order to acquire the skills they’re teaching. That’s understandable. No one learns to play the piano adroitly after only one or two lessons. It requires commitment and dedication. Try swinging a golf club—even after a good instructor tells you how—and you realize that it requires practice.
The concepts presented in this chapter, on the other hand, you can understand and use immediately. Not too many other segments of your training will be as instantaneous. That’s because these are disciplines that you accept and apply rather than knowledge that you must acquire or skills that you must perfect. Following these recommendations requires no study or preparation. It’s like resolving to walk a mile every day. Either you do it or you don’t.
You’re both the instructor and the student in this self-taught course. These practices will aid you in both positions. Committing to these disciplines will help you, the instructor, teach more effectively. They will also assist you, the student, in learning your lessons more quickly. Consider them both teaching and study aids.
Before we note them and discuss them in more detail, I would like to add that, if practiced regularly, these suggestions will be a tremendous benefit throughout your writing career. They will help you write more quickly and more professionally. They will guarantee that you always present your best material to clients, producers, and whoever may be interested in hiring you.
These concepts are:
•Writing to a quota
•Overwriting
Writing to a Quota
Writing to a quota is essential to teaching yourself to write comedy. The more you do something, the easier and more comfortable it becomes. An example of this is the routine that you repeat each day when you drive. You go through a series of actions when you first start up your car. You probably can’t even recall what those specific moves are, but you do them each time you settle in behind the wheel. Similarly, you go through a series of actions each time you turn your car’s engine off. You perform them so consistently and so frequently that you’re now so familiar with them that you hardly know what they are or that you’re doing them.
When I bought a new car that had a hand-pulled parking brake, I spent several months turning off the engine and then stomping my foot against the floorboard. Why? Because my previous auto had a parking brake that was activated by pressing a floor pedal with my left foot. I was so accustomed to stomping my foot on the pedal that it took me several months to unlearn it.
The more consistently you perform an activity, the faster the learning curve becomes. It’s more profitable to hit 20 golf balls a day than it is to hit maybe 600 once a month or, to take it to the extreme, 7,300 golf balls one day each year. You’re hitting the same number of balls within the same span of time, yet the resulting benefits are quite different. You’ll gain more with consistent practice.
When the practice is relatively steady, the learning becomes cumulative. You build on the practice that preceded this one. When the practice is sporadic, you have to relearn much of what you learned before in order to build on that knowledge.
Consistent writing develops momentum. You get in the groove.
