You Never Know What To Expect
Creative works are such wily, unpredictable things.
This quarter I’m writing a comedy feature, and a comedic pilot. In both of those different classes, we have to bring in pages to have them read aloud by the other writers in the workshop.
This is the first flat out comedy I’ve written here at UCLA, in this workshop setting. Comedies are interesting, because you can pretty much tell right away whether they are working or not – based on whether people are laughing or not. So on a weekly basis, I get a really good idea of “what’s working.”
It’s strange, because sometimes I think I’m coming in with really excellent funny 10 pages, and they don’t get nearly the laughs I think they will. Other times, I think my pages are pretty rough, and the room is laughing out loud throughout the read.
I feel like a coach. I work my hardest to prepare these pages, but then I have to sit back and see how they are performing on their own.
Yesterday, on our 8 person workshop, the pages we read from almost all the writers were excellent and there were a ton of laughs for the comedies in the room – mine included. It was really fun. I made some risky choices in the humor in those pages yesterday, so I went in not knowing whether people would be able to lock in and “get it,” or if the read would have more of a tone of a funeral. Fortunately, laughs!
But today, I was really very confident about the first 6 pages of my comedy pilot, and the laughs were pretty few and far between. Oh well.
In the creative journey, you should never let yourself get too high or too low. Just keep creating.
Do you get nervous when your pages are read for all the writers? Or by now is it just old hat?
Yes. I don’t really like it that much, to be honest. The pages are often so new and raw and I know they aren’t “ready” yet.
Well, I am glad you were honest. I’m disappointed, however, that you didn’t need to use the phrase, “If I remember correctly.”
I suppose for once, you were very confident in your memory.
But seriously, that would be hard to share something that is still in the creative process with a bunch of people whose job it is to be critical.
Flying naked, for sure!
Wow…that has got to be tough…to sit there and wait while other people comment on the work that you think is really good, not knowing if they will agree or not.