Our next meeting is on Tuesday 19th March
We're back at the Old King's Head near London Bridge at 7pm to read an episode of the sitcom ‘Chingford Zoo’ by Robbie Fox, plus sketches. Details on our website.
We are currently booking slots for for sitcoms, sketches, monologues, comic plays, webisodes, shorts and comedy dramas. Remember, your space on the list is dependent on you turning up to support other writers.
On Writing a Comedy Drama
Comedy drama is very big right now, with many of the most award-laden or critically-acclaimed shows falling into this category. We’re also seeing more ‘dramedies’ being submitted to LCW for table reading, which is only to be encouraged, so long as they’re around 30 minutes in length. These are also the only type of comedy scripts the BBC now accepts in its Writers’ Room open calls, so no wonder more are being written. But unlike a sitcom, where the aim is fairly straightforward (make it funny, essentially all the time); for this hybrid-genre, there are different conventions to bear in mind and traps to avoid when embarking on your first draft.
A Good Grasp of Structure
It may seem obvious, but comedy drama needs to feature both of those aspects. I’ve read scripts classified as dramedy where there weren’t any humorous elements. The label was applied, simply because some of the sequences were whimsical or light-hearted or the drama itself underwhelmed. Similarly, if you’ve written a sitcom with certain scenes that aren’t intended to produce laughs, that’s not necessarily comedy drama either. To express the dramatic aspect, it’s more important than ever to have a good grasp of structure. Comedy drama is often forty-five to sixty pages per episode, so if you don’t have enthralling plotlines that build to end of episode cliff-hangers or resolutions, you’ll have trouble sustaining the narrative momentum. Your overall concept needs to be sufficiently complex and flexible to allow for plenty of compelling threads, with ample stakes and jeopardy – you can’t base a whole series around the premise of a bloke not going out, for example.
Complex Characterisation
While the main players in sitcoms can be two-dimensional, cartoonish and less than plausible for comic effect, your ‘dramedic’ creations need to be convincing as real people; their actions taking place in what is essentially a realistic world (otherwise you risk wandering into surrealism, hyper-realism, magic realism…). We’ll likely be following your characters for many episodes to come, so there should be deep and complex characterisation from the off, including those supporting roles that may be magnified later, coming into their own as the series arc progresses.
Tone Is Important
As Jesse Armstrong, creator of what is arguably the best comedy drama of recent years in Succession, has pointed out: tone is incredibly important. When you’re walking a tightrope between comedic scenes and those that employ pathos, tension and the occasional shock to an audience’s system, your tone should be naturalistic and convincing in relation to serious subject matter like grief, addiction or the tendency of people to betray one another. These themes will be undercut by funny moments to relieve some of the pressure from all those grown-up emotions. Having recently written a comedy drama of my own, it felt like the scenes bookending my pilot really had to focus on the drama. That way, expectations of regular laughs weren’t set at the beginning, and I could raise the dramatic stakes, heading into the next episode.
It All Comes From The Characters
What sitcoms and dramedy do have in common, however, is that the bulk of the comedy comes from the characters. For both of these genres you need to make it clear who everyone is quickly and put them in interesting situations where they’ll react in a way that is unique to them. We eagerly anticipate how Greg and Tom will respond to the latest crisis caused by trying to get into the good books of Logan Roy in Succession, for example. If your characters are original and multi-faceted like these, whether you’re writing dramedy, sitcoms or even straight drama, enough time spent on those secondary aspects I’ve mentioned will mean that it all falls into place.
Al
'Character is key. Once you’ve got that voice going, everything else can follow. If you’ve also got the right tone, you’re in the right area – an inconsistent tone can screw up a project.'
Jesse Armstrong
Competitions and Opportunities
The annual Shortcom sitcom competition is now open for scripts 23 - 30 pages long (plus a one-page pitch document). The early bird entry fee is £15. Deadline (for the early bird): 22nd April.
Sapere Books are offering a 5-book publishing contract for a writer who can submit a 2,000 word synopsis and the first 3 chapters of the first (fictional) work in a series out of a choice of six briefs, including Bletchley Park codebreaking and Gothic House mysteries. Find out more. Deadline 31st May.
The Sitcom Mission remains open, accepting short sitcom scripts (up to 15 pages). It costs £15 to enter and the judges are some major luminaries in the UK comedy industry. You can also pay extra for feedback. Deadline: 28th April.
Member News
LCW regular Robin Taylor has just launched Season Three of his Thinking About Writing podcast with episodes focussed on the step-by-step process of writing a script, from concept to completion.
Our chair Tristan White continues his informative, occasionally comic odyssey around the capital city, with a new episode of Love Your London now available on his YouTube Channel about Barnes village, with its Wetland Centre and rock star connections.
The next Good Humour Comedy Club, as hosted by LCW’s Joe Bates, takes place at the Earl of Derby in South-East London on Thursday 28th March. In return for an optional donation to charity at the end, you’ll enjoy a terrifically funny line-up. You can reserve a spot in advance, or just turn up on the night.