Well in my second to last assignment for the Internet writing course, I didn’t exactly receive high marks from the instructor.

Here’s the link to Assignment 7 – Monologue.

While my instructor found this to be a funny scene from start to finish (and I have to say I think it would make for a funny blackout), he was disappointed in the character of the monologue.  Similar to last week, this character had no depth and didn’t change throughout the scene.  He had one objective, he was able to pursue it using a variety of strategies, but he had no obstacles, there was no conflict.

My instructor was curious: why is he so concerned about Stupidity, does he have a personal connection to Little Timmy, why should we care about this person at all?  All good questions, none of which I really answered.

I think the roadblock that I’ve run into is finding the differences between writing just for laughs, and writing a dramatic scene.  I could understand this character development, and showing his emotions, etc, in a dramatic scene, but I can’t seem to figure out how to do it for a comedic one.  How do you create a meaningful character that you care about, and still make it so you want to laugh at him as well?

Similar to improv, my gut feeling is that I’m in my head way too much.  I’m thinking too hard about how to achieve success on all levels, where if I would just write and see where it goes, I’ll be much better off.  Do you think Tiger Woods thinks about every minsucle aspect of his swing, the exact angle he brings the club back, the velocity he follows through with, the position of every single face muscle?  No.  He practices so much that it’s ingrained in his memory, and he doesn’t have to think about every little detail, he just does it.  I’d imagine that’s how great writers are.

So now we’re down the last assignment.  We have two weeks to complete, so I’m hoping to write a bunch and then edit it down to something funny that has depth.  We’ll see how that goes.