Shayne-Michael.COMedy

Choosing A Writing Partner - by Shayne Michael

When I moved to LA, I spent a year in a bad writing group. The experience did nothing but eat up my gas tank, tax my time and drop by writing ability four notches. The group consisted of a tone-deaf comic, a girl who thought being a rude transplant from New York living in LA was an original idea for a sitcom and an original comic who loved to share his own ideas yet lacked the ability to listen to anyone else's. There were also two pitbulls. Both were friendlier, funnier and more likeable than the entire group combined.

A line can only move as fast as its slowest member. That statement goes for mental capacity too. A writing group is only as good as its worst writer. Unless my group had planned on penning the sequel to Dumb and Dumber, we had no hope.

Since then, I don't do writing groups. I still write with other people; usually I help over the phone. Or, I work with comics one-one-one. But, I'm very picky who I write with. I only choose people who I feel are already great comics, who are my complete opposite, and whom I know intimately (& that doesn't mean sexually). It just means I know them well enough that I could write about what's inside their heads and what's happening in their families.

Why Choose Your Opposite?

There is a big advantage choosing someone who has a different style of humor from yours. If your a guy, try writing for a female comic. You'll understand a woman's outlook on comedy a lot better. I'm a very negative person. I do better writing for people who are overly positive. Why? First, this teaches me to write comedy from a completely different point-of-view. I can't see jokes from a positive angle. Writing for someone who can is how I bridge that gap. The second advantage to choosing your opposite is you never fall into the trap of saying, "I wish I could keep that joke for myself."

Also, keep in mind, if you ever write on a sitcom, you will need to be able to write for people who are completely different from yourself anyway. Learn that skill early. A word of warning. Comics, including myself, tend to think we know everything. Be careful to listen to your partner's advice. Remember when you start dealing with a comic who sees things from the opposite point-of-view it's easy to get defensive. Let your guard down and accept the advice they're giving.

Choosing Someone You Know

When you're not dealing with your own personality you need to know all the factors that made your writing partner who they are. Talk to them about more than jokes. Know about your partner, their friends, their history, their hopes and their family. You should be able to picture your partner interacting with their mother, father, brothers, sisters or gay lovers.

Remember your trying to understand their total environment. Without that understanding their background, the jokes will be empty one-liners without underlying motivations. The only way to improve the writing of someone who is already a good comic is to bring a presence to their motives, upbringing, attitudes, cadence of speech and all those other subtle things comics sometimes miss.

Don't Choose Lousy Comics

There's a difference between working smart and working hard. If you choose a lousy comic you might elevate their writing level to yourself; they will not elevate your writing. There's a stronger chance they will bring you back down to their level. It's not worth the risk of letting your talents devolve. It takes entirely too much time to explain to a slow comic the nature and structure of humor. You'll spend more time explaining what a set-up and punchline are than you'll spend writing.

Choose comics you feel already belong in sitcoms, books or a movies. Learn how they write, rehearse and deliver material. Do not focus on cash; don't even focus credit. If your partner's style is well defined enough, you don't deserve credit. You didn't develop their persona anyway.

Don't forget choosing the right person improves the odds of mutual success. If this is the person you helped writes their way to a sitcom, you become the perfect candidate to write on the show. If they're already halfway there, it won't be such a daunting task to push them over the finish line.

Summary Of This Pamphlet

Before you can write for TV you need to learn to write for other people. I recommend handling this as a one-on-one experience. I don't recommend hanging out in bad writing groups, that spend their Saturdays saying, "I have a great idea for a new sitcom. You see there's a bunch of doctors, and they're all in the Navy. Now, the US is about to go to war. We'll call it R*E*H*A*S*H*"

I recommend choosing top-notch comics that you know well. Choose the type of comic you feel already deserves a sitcom, movie or book deal. Their style should be very well-deifined and very different from yours. That way you learn to write humor from a new point-of-view. At the same time, you don't fall into the trap of wishing you could keep all the material for yourself. Don't focus on writing for cash or credit. When you know how to transplant that comic and their family into any new place or situation you'll have a skill far more valuable than any amount of cash anyone could ever have paid you anyway.