5 tips for writing comedy alongside a full-time job
Many people dream of writing comedy as a career, but very few do it straight out of school. What if you want to write but have a job to work around? Realistically you aren’t going to be handing in your notice immediately so here’s 5 tips to make it work.
- Keep an ideas book with you. A notebook is a great way to keep track of all the little sparks of inspiration you get during the day. We’ve all had moments in which we mentally bookmark – ‘He could make a great comedy character’, ‘That situation would have made a funny sketch’. We tell ourselves we should develop them when we next have some time off. The reality is that we rarely do, because we’re busy and our minds aren’t built that way. Try keeping a notebook, scribble down your thoughts as they happen, and review them once a week. You’re likely to find that you start observing more keenly than you did before…
- Enjoy being in the ‘everyday’. At its core, all good comedy understands human behaviour. While working you’re more likely to be exposed to those regular encounters that enhance your understanding of people – what motivates people to do what they do? Sometimes the more mundane the environment, the more genuine and interesting the behaviour. You’re also more likely to experience a diverse range of emotions yourself while you have varied pursuits, and your writing will be all the richer for it.
- Take advantage whenever you’re in the zone. It’s logical to set aside time in your schedule to write, but writing is not a linear activity. Writing productivity fluctuates far more than most other tasks, so be prepared that you’ll have days when you can’t seem to thread it together and don’t let it get you down. There are things you can do to improve your chances – it helps to do whatever gets you in a good mood (humans are far more creative when happy) – but it’s not an exact science. If other work can wait (it usually can) take advantage of those times when you are ‘in the zone’ and the ideas are flowing, and even if you can’t – get them written down! (see 1)
- Learn to write anytime/anywhere. We all have our favourite places to write. Some have a quiet room at home, others prefer the coffee shop – we tend to seek out the same place once we associate it with our best work. Unfortunately, writers with a day job don’t have the luxury of heading to this place whenever they get the time. Learn to write whenever and wherever you get the chance – on the bus, in the waiting room, in the park on your lunch break – you will get more done and you might just find your writing improves with new stimuli. I get a buzz whenever I write somewhere new or at an unusual point of the day. It feels like a bonus, or even like I’m stealing time…
- Don’t be an island. The writer’s existence is often solitary. Many like it that way, but the fact is that yours is only one biased opinion on whether your work is funny. Seek out others who share your style of comedy to bounce your ideas off, and ask for feedback (try to avoid people who won’t want to offend). You don’t always have to show someone a script, try out an idea on them, play one of your characters and mess around if that’s your style. If you’re writing around a day job, you don’t want to be wasting time with a dud idea – test things quickly and be prepared to change it or move on – don’t wait until you’ve written a whole script to find out the premise isn’t as funny to others as to you.
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