Writing a Sitcom

I have decided that writing a sitcom is harder than it looks. We've all sat on our sofa and thought that the sitcom we were watching was rubbish. Maybe you've even said those famous words, "I could write something better than this". I've always wondered just how tough it would be to write one myself. So I did and I'm starting to realise that it's not as easy as I originally thought.

I started writing this sitcom long enough ago that I can't actually remember when I started writing it. It's not like I've been writing it non-stop but I've been giving it enough of an effort to be further along than I am. I'm kind of sick of writing it now, I never thought it would take this long. And I'm only writing the first episode!! It's not like I'm writing the whole series, it's just the first episode.

Maybe this is why so many sitcoms on TV suck. Who knew? Just because it's hard is not a valid reason for a TV station putting shitty sitcoms on but it does explain it a little. There are a lot of jobs that are hard but a surgeon is never excused for sucking at their job because it's hard (I was really close to putting a joke here about a porn star sucking at their job because it's hard, but that would have been crass). I'm not giving up just because it's hard, my sitcom is going to be awesome... eventually.

'Eventually' is a fabulous word to use because it doesn't actually lock you in to a specific deadline. And I'm unlikely to meet any deadline I set so I can confirm that I'll get it done 'eventually'. I'm still doing standup and I'm also rewriting a play for next year's Adelaide Fringe Festival and Sydney Comedy Festival. So I've got other stuff to do but I'll get it done, promise.

I've written the outline and the characterisation is pretty much locked in. Oh, and I've already written the damn thing with 3 subsequent rewrites. But after showing it to my agent I now have a heap more work to do on it. I didn't show it to her until I was happy with it, why couldn't she say it was perfect? I was expecting to get a little feedback with a little tweak here and there but she came back with a lot of changes. What really annoys me is that they're all really really good suggestions. They're either things that I hadn't thought about or things that I just didn't care about. But what I really wanted to hear was, "this is brilliant, let's sell this to a production company and make you some money".

The evolution of this sitcom has at least been encouraging. If I'm being honest the first version sucked ass. When I started writing it I had an rough outline and kind of made it up as I went along. I didn't have any idea of what I was doing and didn't even write out the character descriptions until after the first episode was written (even though I've never done this before I know that's back to front). The only thing that I carried over from the first draft to the second draft was the names of the characters, and one of those names has changed anyway. You have no idea how odd it is to have a conversation about why one name is funnier than another or why that character just doesn't sound like a Simon.

The second draft at least had a decent structure but it was still a long way away. The third draft was better but wasn't nearly funny enough. It's awkward for a comedian to look at what they've written and to realise that it's not funny. And before you say anything, I realise that this blog isn't very funny, sorry. But it's not as if this is the first thing I've written that wasn't funny enough. I have a box somewhere with roughly 40 notebooks of some of the most unfunny ideas and rough scribblings ever stored in the one place.

The 4th draft was all about putting jokes into it. I think it's got the jokes in now but now my agent has identified all of the flaws that need to be corrected. So not it's back to work. I have to change some of the character motivations and highlight a few things that I thought were obvious... apparently not obvious enough. But I'm really enjoying it. I know I seem to be complaining about it but I complain about everything so this shouldn't come as too much of a surprise.

I tend to enjoy being creative. I don't think it really matters what form it takes. For example I recently directed my friends Sydney Fringe Festival show and I had a great time doing it. The show turned out great but even though I wasn't writing it I just enjoyed being part of the creative process.

Maybe I should become a director full time. It's way easier to tell someone how to say a line and when to walk across a stage than it is to start with a blank piece of paper and write 15 drafts to get the dialogue just right. So if you've got a show already written and need a director you should give me a call. It'll be a good distraction for me. Although I've got to have the next draft of my sitcom written 'eventually'.