Writing your script now, are you? How’s it going?
Hard work, isn’t it?
I don’t really know what to say here. If this were a movie, we’d be standing side by side, with some emotional music swelling and I’d say that this is a journey you have to make alone – and you would nod sagely and head off into the sunset. But, if you’ve waxed the car and painted the fence, you are ready to fight your own battles. (For anyone under 35 and over 50 that’s a Karate Kid reference. Google it.)
So here’s my parting advice: Get to the end. Write the darned thing. Clear the diary. Make sure you’ve got a few days when you can do this and nothing else. If you’re working at another job, take the weekend and a day’s holiday either side and get it written. In my opinion, chipping away for an hour or two here and there isn’t going to work at this stage. Block out time and write it.
You can do this. If you’ve got your outline that’s been worked over a few times, if you’re clear about the point of each scene, if you know what your characters want, if you know how they succeed and fail, and how each scene leads to the next, you should be okay. Eventually.
The first few pages take ages. That’s normal. Don’t spend too long on these first few pages. Despite what I said about the critical importance of this first scene, don’t spend days and days on it. Just write something. Write what it says on your outline. Keep things moving or you’ll run out of steam or get fed up. Some days the actual jokes, funny lines and zingers don’t leap to mind. Don’t worry about them now. They are, remember, the icing on the cake. Or at least the marzipan and icing on the cake. Worry about the cake for now. Write the bulk of the script. Don’t even call it a first draft. I often call it Draft 0 – a draft I couldn’t bear to show to anyone. That’s fine. Just write. Keep writing. Keep writing.
The further you get, the faster you tend to go anyway. You’ve got the voices of the characters fixed in your head. If you don’t, you could try casting it with some actors whom you think would be good in the part – even if they’re wildly unobtainable (at the moment) – and imagine them saying the lines. That might help.
Sometimes, as you write them, scenes take an unexpected turn, and that’s fine. In fact, the characters are taking the story in a slightly different way. That’s a good sign. These characters are taking on a life of their own. Embrace that. Try and stick to your outline, but don’t worry if you deviate. You might think of a better plot-twist or ending on the fly.
Avoid the Slough of Despond
In short, don’t let yourself get bogged down. Don’t worry about lines that are horribly expositional, derivative or boring. Just make sure it’s in character. I’ve got a whole
load of dos and don’ts, but don’t worry about those too much at the moment. Write! Write like the wind! Think of the elation of getting to the end. Even if it’s a draft 0 that needs a lot of work, you’ll feel great. I’ve written loads of draft 0 scripts and getting to the end feels good every time.
So get the first scene done by lunch. Take a walk. Get back to it. Write the second scene. That’s six pages. That’s fine. Tomorrow, write two scenes before lunch (either side of a coffee break). Then another in the afternoon. If you can bear it, write another scene in the evening before bed. You might crack ten pages in a day. That’s potentially halfway. The next day, two more scenes by lunch. Holy moly, you’re two-thirds of the way through. The next scene writes itself. The next day, the last couple of scenes and the finale. You’re done. It ain’t pretty. It ain’t even all that funny. But you’ve got to the end in four days.
Of course, you need to find your own way. The way I’ve just described is how I do it. I can normally get to the end in four days, and then I go back over it for a couple of days. My Bluestone 42 co-writer Richard Hurst normally takes a bit longer, fixing stuff as he goes, so his first draft (or Draft 0) is probably in better shape.
Other writers talk about a ‘vomit pass’ which is essentially trying to write the whole script in 24-48 hours, and then spend three or four days going back over it. That could work for you.
But overall, the advice is this. Just get to the end. Okay? Go!
If I haven’t put you off and you still want to write a sitcom script, but don’t know where to start, I’ve put together a comprehensive course that will help you get from a basic idea to a completed sitcom script in twelve steps (and a few months). More information here:
This is what the course looks like inside. Lots of visuals and practical advice:
Hearing Voices (In a Good Way)