Ignoring the internal editor
It's all been done before but not by you!
Ignoring the internal editor
That little voice that drones on in the back of your head like a constant, and in my case rather unpleasant parental figure has its uses. It’s the main reason you haven’t died yet, have friends and wear clothes when you go out. However for artistic purposes it can be counter productive. It’s always telling you what you’re writing isn’t good or original enough. It’s telling you that the idea you had when you were feeling silly the other morning is pure hot crap right now. I suppose it’s trying to protect you from some kind of theoretical humilation, but you’re a comedian for goodness sake! Humiliation is your art!
You’re never going to stop this flow of negativity entirely, but you can just accept it will always be there and just deal with it - like the smell from my sink. Think of it like a radio tuned to a station tuned to a vaguelly right-wing station that’s been left on in the other room. It’s annoying, yes, but for goodness' sake, don’t listen to its advice!
Your internal editor might say these kinds of things about a comedic idea:
It’s been done before
Most topics have been covered before, but not by you. As long as you add plenty of details and your own point of view then you can avoid being hack. You should write material that only you are able to tell. Even Tinder can be original:
Too personal
No such thing! People are too tightly wound and polite these days, it’s amazing to be vulnerable and open. Your audience will always tell you if it’s too much information, and then you can just add an afterthought or 10 to tell them why they are dead wrong!
Boring
As long as it’s funny, no subject is off limits. Some of the best comedians of our time are able to make comedy from the most mundane topics. Nothing is boring if you care about it, and convince us why we should care too. If you are bored by your material then that is a problem. You can fake it, but best to move on with fresh material if you can.
Not relatable
Making an obscure subject funny is all about making it relatable. People might not have an encyclopaedic knowledge of Star Trek The Next Generation like you do, but they still know the heroic leader, the horny first officer, the scantily clad empath, the boy genius - and it might be a lot of fun to relate it to peoples worlds even if they’re ignorant enough to have missed this masterpiece of contemporary sci-fi !
It’s not funny… etc
In some cases, it might be right - but it doesn’t know. The only people that can really tell you are the audience. If you think an idea had artistic merit when you first thought of it, it probably still does. Don’t throw away perfectly good ideas when you probably just need a sandwich or a nap.
I wrote this exercise to help you turn your internal editor into an unpaid intern!
Hello Caroline,
I have an huge issue with this. When i am writing i am always judging.
I wrote one personal experience that i had with a fart on a plane. (It was made by other folk. I am well educated and i don´t have, at the moment, intestine issues)
Bellow the text. (Defintatly needs to be re-checked and advice.
Some decisions have lack of logic.
I travelled to Frankfurt, on a plane, close to the window. The space is tight. The sun was intense. The heat hit the wing, and made it even hotter. For that reason i closed the window.
From nowhere, in the silence, a fart smell was around my nose.
This one was bad. It was a silent one. In churchs, there is a sign advising "Please make silence". Please don´t do it. It will stink. If you will do it put the ass in holy water. That way the water will beat the smell, of the silence fart.
But in my case, the fart was on a plane. What can i do? I can´t put the nose out of the plane,. I can´t move to avoid the smell, i have low space to move. So i opened the window, so the sun heat could enter. It improved the situation? No, but i felt good because i made a decision.
Editing and hating my current set for the German 101 class right this very moment when the notification for this article caught my attention. What a coincidence. Thanks.