Skits

Day 274 (92) – Assignment 8: Twin

In the last assignment of the Second City Internet Writing Course, we were to pick one scene that we had already written, and go back and rewrite it, taking what we have learned and trying to apply it for one last hoorah. I wasn’t quite sure which one I wanted to pick. Do I go with my favorite one, the Twinkie, the one I think is funniest, the Stupidity Disease, or where the characters seemed the most interesting, the Inappropriate one?

In the end, I elected to go with the interesting characters (as suggested by the instructor). You can find the scene here. You’ll notice that the beginning is similar to before (there are some changes, some added lines), and there’s a whole new scene added at the end. After you’ve read the scene, keep reading for the feedback from my instructor, as well as the high level things I learned from the course.

To feedback, and beyond… Well as can be somewhat expected, the last critique was overly positive. I say “expected” not because I thought my scene was amazing (though I do think it had a lot more depth than any of the ones before), it’s just unlikely that the last email you get after a paid 8-week course would be all negative. They’ve certainly got to hype you up so you keep coming back.

Anywho, the feedback was positive, and my instructor highlighted some very specific areas that he liked better. There was more depth to both characters (hey, both characters actually had objectives), and there was a better glimpse of the history between these two people. The instructor also called out two of my favorite lines: “Ain’t no party like a Damon party…” and “fulfilled our dream with the midget.”

Overall, I thought the course was a great experience and I definitely learned a lot. I think one of the most beneficial things was just to be forced to write in a new context at least once a week. As for more specific takeaways, these were the comments from my instructor over the past 8 weeks that I think highlight the points of the course:

• You need to think about exploring strategies that don’t necessarily depend on dialogue, but rather force your characters to make active choices.
• Be sure that your characters are actually listening to each other. The best strategies don’t come out of nowhere, but are a direct response to what has already been presented.
• I want to see less talking and more DOING. I want SHOWING instead of TELLING.
• Focus on character development over comic premise.
• And that’s the inherent question of any scene: Why should we care about your characters?
• An objective shouldn’t be a passive desire – something that a character kinda-sorta-maybe wants – but something that MUST happen TODAY or their world will fall apart.
• Each line of dialogue needs to provide another detail about his story, another clue (intended or not) as to how we’re supposed to feel about him.