Troubleshooting

There are several problems you might have at this stage in the joke writing process. If you encounter any of them, that is wonderful! That means you are learning. You are on the right track. But why don’t we see if we can’t find solutions for them anyway?

Problem: Why shouldn’t I just start writing jokes instead of wasting my time deciding on a topic? Can’t I just write down what comes to my mind?

Absolutely. There is no argument against that at all if it works for you. I want to give you a system you can follow and fall back on if you find yourself in a rut or if can’t decide on what you next step should look like.

Having said that a topic is really useful because it restricts you. And being restricted creatively can be a really good thing:

Being restricted/specific helps your brain narrow the elements it can combine and forces it to combine them in unusual and creative ways. It also focuses you on one thing at a time and thus prevents you from feeling overwhelmed. Additionally a topic let’s you avoid the dreaded question: “What should I write next?”

If you don’t like the idea of restricting yourself, think of your topics as clothes. Instead of wearing your whole wardrobe at the same time, managing dozens of layers concurrently, think of it as deciding on one pair of trousers and really making them work. The rest of your clothes are still there, waiting for their time to shine but you aren’t weighed down by them.

Problem: I have too many topics. I can’t decide on only one.

In my opinion the best advice on choosing a topic is this:

Follow your excitement.

What excites you? What can’t you stop thinking about even if you wouldn’t be in need of a topic?

But don’t trust that excitement will carry you all the way to the perfect comedy piece. Excitement only gets you so far. But it IS an excellent boost at the beginning. But after the initial excitement diminishes you have to be willing to work on it, have a system in place that gets you to the end. Otherwise you will be staring at whole lot of started and never finished pieces.

Keep in mind: With excitement I don’t only mean positive excitement. Anger, frustration, things that annoy you, negative emotions in general are very good fuel for writing. Especially comedy writing. But it’s worth thinking about if you wanna talk about it a year from now when these feelings will already be lost like tears in the rain.

Problem: I can’t find an interesting Angle of Attack for my chosen topic.

There are several things you can do:

Get more specific. Zoom in and make your topic smaller. Don’t talk about dogs in general. Talk about the different kind of leashes you can get for a dog. I mean, they must have come up with the ultimate leash till now, right? It’s a leash for heavens sake.

Don’t worry. Just start gathering elements and in the process of writing stuff down you might get lucky and find the kernel of inspiration that makes the whole thing work. If not, try again later. And by that I don’t only mean a day later, no. Sometimes it takes years to find the one angle that ties the whole thing together.

Get a deadline. Sometimes it is the luxury of time that keeps you in limbo. It helps knowing that in two days you just have to deliver something. Will it be your best work? Maybe. Probably not. But you will have to decide on an angle to approach your topic and just run with it.

Problem: I always feel like I don’t know enough about my topic to start writing just yet.

Sometimes we already exactly know what we are going to say. We just have to figure out a way to say it. For example something happened to you on the way to work and you wanna tell that story on stage. Perfect!

But other times we don’t have the luxury of having a story ready to be worked on. We just have a general topic and not even a remote idea about how we feel about it.

Here is the thing: You don’t need to have perfect grasp on a topic and knowing exactly how we feel about it. It’s absolutely fine to start with varying degrees of having a grasp on a topic.

I once had the pleasure to write jokes about a brochure for a electricity company which I then had to perform at their company Christmas dinner. Fun times!

But you know what? It was still better then having no clue what to write about. Otherwise how would I ever have written a cock-block joke involving a power outage?

But both approaches, both degrees of having a topic are completely fine.

Repeat after me:

It’s better to have a topic to write about than wasting time looking for the PERFECT topic to write about.

Even if you finally found the perfect topic after looking for it for weeks you have a big disadvantage to someone who spent their time working on electricity brochures: After you finished your jokes about the perfect topic…. Now what? You are back to square one. Looking for the perfect topic. Which took a long long time.

And while working on… anything basically, you are learning to squeeze jokes out of the most mundane and boring topics. Which will help you write even better jokes when you stumble upon your perfect topic.

Which means: Start before you feel ready

Sometimes it’s while we are looking for an idea that we realize what we want to say. We discover the true content of our piece.

You don’t have to have the GPS knowledge of the way before starting to go look for your idea.

You don’t need EVERYTHING in place, knowing every last little detail before you start. As a comedy writer you only need to have a general direction and you will find your jokes on the way.

A topic is good because it gives your brain something to play with, to focus on instead of just turning in place and not knowing what to do with itself. You don’t need to plan the exact route to get to your comedy piece. What you need is a general direction so your brain has something to do. But you leave yourself enough space to wander around, take in the scenery and find beautiful ideas on the way.

Or if we go back to thinking of topics as clothes: Just start dressing yourself. Don’t try to plan your whole outfit from nothing. Pick a shirt and it will make it way easier to pick the next thing because it will have to go with your shirt and that limits you options. That way you will be dressed in no time!

Problem: What constitutes as a “good” topic?

Keep in mind a topic isn’t funny on it’s own. Are there topics that lend themselves more easily to comedy? Absolutely. But what can become comedy gold in the hands of one, can be completely dull in the hands of another. So don’t worry too much. Just follow your instincts. And if you don’t have any yet, just start anywhere and try. If it doesn’t work, try something else. After all you are a comedy writer and not a sculptor who is using up expensive marble when he makes a mistake.

Write, cross out, write some more, ask people for feedback, write even more.

The only thing you are doing here is giving yourself the space and the time to grow as a writer and a human being. Have fun! Nobody is expecting anything from you. Even if you have already written a hit show, relax. You already gave the world something beautiful. You don’t owe anyone anything. Not even yourself. Except maybe the chance to fail.

I read somewhere: “While waiting on Mister Perfect a girl can have a lot of fun with the rest.”

And the same applies to choosing a topic. Just pick something and let your brain surprise you. Enter the New Yorker Caption contest, get yourself a gig having to write jokes about an electricity company brochure. It is wonderful training for your comedy writing muscles.

Having said all that, what constitutes as a “good” topic?