#SecondCity Writing I: Weak premise. Weak sketch (Week Five) « Tic, Tac, Travel, Tech...
Learning, learning, learning. That has been the motto for the last year in my relatively young career. The above links to a blog written by a person taking classes at Second City. The blog basically accomplishes what I’m trying to do with this blog, have different lessons that I can use to make my writing better. In this case it’s about writing sketch comedy – something I SUCK AT. Okay, that might be a little harsh, even thought some of my sketches have been produced by Tastes Better Wit with Bindlestiff Studio. But I basically learned how to do that from watching a couple Groundlings sketches on YouTube.
Speaking of learning, I’ve invested a large amount of time to listening to the Writer’s Panel Podcast through The Nerdist Podcast Channel. In it, the moderator, Ben Blacker, asks awesome questions to a new panel of Writers whom are writing for Television. Given the self-defined nature of Television Writer, I didn’t specifically mention that term, because in the interviews, I gleaned that these story tellers have begun their careers as playwrights, comic book writers, or stand-up comics. I don’t think I’ve heard a novelist on a panel yet, but I could be mistaken. Each of the panelist’s breaking-in stories are inspiring as it does drive home the different paths to get to where they are now, though the general way is the PA (Production Assistant), which could lead to a Writing Assistant position where their job entails writing everything that is said, a note-taker if you will, in the Writer’s Room, and construct the outline of each episode then to be a Staff Writer, the person to actually write the episode based on said outline, to being the Show Runner (Executive Producer) who runs the writer’s room.
Another great piece of television writer’s terminology I love is Breaking a Script or Story. This, by my understanding of what all the panelists speak of during the podcasts, is when a story is written out, either by Whiteboard or through the use of index cards (first read in Syd Field’s Foundation of Screenwriting) of each Act, scene and beat of the story. So basically how a story is broken down to the granular level of action – dialogue is to be filled in later. But by doing this, EVERYONE in the room (where there is more that one person in a writer’s room) contributes to the story. And where there is ever a disagreement on a choice of where the story is going to go, then the show runner breaks that tie and decides.
I’ve actually taken this approach to writing almost everything. I first heard of this concept in Gary Grave’s playwriting class with the Berkeley Rep School of Theatre, where he introduced French Scenes – each scene begins and ends when someone either enters or leaves a room. That helped because before learning that, I didn’t know when a scene began or ended. Of course there might be times to differ from this when, like in a paragraph, the idea is the lynchpin of the duration of the scene. Taking this concept to heart, I then break down the scene by actions: A enters the room. B greets A. A yells at B for leaving the toilet seat up. A pulls out a grenade. B pees on himself. A laughs at B. B pulls out a knife and throws it at A. A catches it. A throws grenade at B. B catches it. B pulls out the pin. B throws it back to A. Both die. All action, no dialogue, beginning, conflict, intent of action, action, ending. Story done! All that is left is the IMAGINATION of the writer to fill in the details. Before I started using this Breaking a Script technique, the romantic (in the sense of the word) writer in me would free write and take where ever the muse leads me. But I’ve found that when a writer depends too much on this muse, than Mr. Muse decides to take a Wally World Vacation at the same time the writer is pressed up against a deadline. The other major reason I’ve adopted this approach is because my biggest problem with writing a story is FINISHING one. So constructing an outline makes it easier to finish a play because I in one sentence, i.e. “He takes her offered hand as she leads him out of the gallery.”, the finish line is in sight!
All about the learning. In addition to listening to the Writer’s Panel, I’m also listening to Steven King’s Book, ON WRITING. Note I said listening, which lends to a bit of irony in that I’m a terrible reader. I fall asleep during that action. Thank goodness for audio books and that I write in a medium that needs to ultimately be seen and heard… and hopefully to move as well.
Great tip, but I know that there’s still a lot for me to learn: building strong unique characters, finding unpredictable choices for characters to take, reading how other authors construct a play through their scripts, being able to competently give and receive constructive feedback, and more. This is why I’m going back to school with the focus of being a “Master” at telling a story set on stage.