The Chatterbox

Yesterday I finally got motivated to pound out a rough first draft of my sitcom idea.  All the while I was writing it, I kept thinking, "This isn't funny.  This is bad.  This is crap."  The jokes felt forced, I felt I was trying too hard, it just didn't feel like I was doing it justice.

I know when I write funny.  Though it may sound narcissistic (no, me??), I have written some real laugh out loud stuff.  I laughed, others laughed, it's golden as they say. 

But I was reading over this draft yesterday and I just couldn't get into any kind of groove.  I felt like I was too over the top (my main character is extremely over the top) and it was just completely the opposite of funny. 

Last night the minute Steven came in I made him read it.  I knew if he didn't laugh out loud the entire read it was, indeed, crap.  He's my comedy meter, I didn't think my first script was funny either but it was his being able to bust a gut while reading that finally convinced me.

Last night, he helped proove it again.  the second page in (or first minute of the show), he was nearly in the floor.  This is good news.

So the Chatterbox decided to change gears.  Instead of convincing me that I couldn't do it, it started to convince me that I could.  That doesn't sound too bad, right?  Wrong!  I literally had a panic attack of what it would mean to advance in this thing.

Ten weeks of my lovely face splattered all over the TV.  I nearly swallowed my tongue at the thought.  Dear God, I barely leave my house, much less get broadcast all over the country. 

And if that weren't enough the Chatterbox then berated me for thinking I could be so arrogant to think that I could win.  Me, who has never before written a television script - who has just *now* started researching on how it should be done and the mechanics of why they work.  Who did I think I was that I really write a script in a day with that little knowledge and walk away with the grand prize?

When I start thinking, it's a dangerous thing.

The bottom line is that I may not have that much experience writing sitcom scripts, but I do have five feature length scripts under my belt.  I have been studying how to write stories, to develop characters, to strengthen plots for two years.  I've always been a sitcom fan, and they remain some of my favorite shows (Three's Company, Night Court, Cheers, Roseanne, The Golden Girls, Friends, Seinfeld, etc, etc).  I have been doing unconscious research for years.

And this idea has been perculating since Steven and I started our trip to Vegas (not to mention that it was the direct descendant of our first script - this character is not new to me). We brainstormed a lot, worked our pitch on family and friends (who confirmed it's originality and it's potential to be funny).  My litmus test on how funny the idea is - if I pitch it and people laugh. 

So me pounding out a 40 page script yesterday (really it should be 20, but the format is double spaced) was really a culmination of all the work I had been doing up until then.  I worked the outline out last week, so I had a guideline of what I wanted to do.

All that was left to do was fill it in and make it funny.

I think I did that.  Now I want to make it good.

Because even if it means I have to break out of my safety zone, hurtle through like a runaway train even, I think I actually have a shot at this thing.

I'll conveniently forget I said that about Nicholl and Austin, both of which double dinked me in the space of a month. 

I'll just earn my stripes as a writer and pick myself up, brush myself up and move on to the next project.  Someday it's going to pay off.

I don't care what the Chatterbox has to say about it.