Collaboration and Restructuring

Okay, the truth is, I'm actually working on TWO sitcoms.

In the last post, I talked about my own sitcom project.  Let me tell you about the other one.

In the summer, a friend got in touch.  Another standup comedian who'd found himself grounded by a global pandemic, he'd been developing a sitcom idea with another comic.  His partner had become too busy to continue, and with her blessing, he asked if I'd like to get involved.

Six months later, we've managed ONE face-to-face meeting - taking all necessary precautions - and the rest has been conducted entirely remotely.

He described the idea to me, and I loved it.  It's a fascinating setting, with a great cast of characters, and a ton of good jokes already.  I read the documents he'd already written, made my own notes, and from there we went back and forth, editing and improving the work.

I absolutely love editing others' work.  I think I've got a good eye for structure, and a reasonably deep understanding of the television industry.  Most of my colleagues in comedy started in standup, and are self-taught, and I like feeling valuable by providing very specific notes on changing a draft to make it a better fit for television.

In this case, the big things the script needed were jeopardy and intrigue.  The situation and characters were funny and interesting, but needed an extra hook to keep viewers coming back for more.

I've collaborated with a lot of comedians over the years, and it's always different.  I have to say that this particular experience has been wonderful.  My writing partner's very hard-working and receptive to ideas, and works in an incredibly positive and creative atmosphere.

He's working to the same deadline as I am on my personal script.  It's possible that BOTH scripts are accepted at this time - and it's also possible (maybe even likely) that NEITHER will.  But he shares my view that passion projects like these are marathons rather than sprints.  This deadline is good motivation to create a good script and pitch document, and whatever happens next, we'll keep working to improve them even further.

He sent the first draft of the pilot this week.  At first, I just read through it and enjoyed it.  Laughed out loud at the jokes, got invested in my favourite characters, and read the whole thing in one sitting to get a sense of the pace.

Next, I made a note of the main things that struck me as needing development - a couple of characters needed more distinct personalities, the protagonist needed to be less passive, a key mystery needed earlier setup, and an extra scene needed inserting at the beginning.

Next, I read through the script again, with a second document open.  In this second document, I listed every scene, its location, and which characters were present.  This is a really useful step, and I'd recommend it to new writers.  It helps you see which characters are overused or underused, which scenes are too crowded, how often you use each location.

At this stage, I'm not looking at dialogue - I'm looking at the big picture.  We'd already worked out what happens in the pilot, so I already knew the order of events.  What I wanted to do now was mess about with the locations, add scenes I felt were needed, cut scenes that weren't, remove characters from scenes that didn't really need them.

Next I phoned my partner.  I told him how much I'd enjoyed the script, enjoyed talking about the jokes, and then quickly got into the things I wanted to do with draft 2.  With a collaboration like this, I find it quicker to tell my collaborator what I want to do first, to see if he has strong opinions either way.

Once I knew he was happy with the changes I wanted to make, I got back to work.  It's a really nice feeling, working on something that you know your partner agrees is a good idea.

I created a new list of scenes - again, listing the location and character list for each one.  Most scenes would now feature two or three characters, as well as being moved to interior locations.  Much of the first draft was set outside, and I preferred the idea of having a number of sets that could be reused throughout the series to make the show easier and cheaper to make.

I really like this bullet-point way of writing a story.  Being able to fit the whole thing on two pages, you can look at the whole thing and see the structure - how one scene leads into the next, how the B-plot fits in, how long it's been since a given character was last seen.

I sent it back, and also phoned my partner for a quick chat - basically, to tell him that if I've cut anything he was passionate about including, that he should let me know!  With collaboration, the actual relationship you have with your partner is really important.  Making it as easy as possible for them to raise problems, and making sure nobody feels changes are being made outside of their control.

I'm really feeling the pressure of my deadline now.  But seeing these scripts take shape is incredibly satisfying.