30 sketches in 30 days.
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The intimidating thing about a blank page, in my opinion, is that once it’s filled it becomes real. We can’t dream of the amazing sketch we could write once we’ve actually written it. Once it becomes real, we have to come to terms with it’s errors and malformations. It isn’t as hilarious and perfect as we had dreamed.
I got over this fear of imperfection with one stupidly simple adjustment: I allowed my sketches to be boring.
I didn’t allow them to be bad. I didn’t allow them to be hacky or to try too hard or go blue. I just allowed myself to write a boring couple of lines between two real people, and without fail, something interesting always happened. If I found something comedic, I would end up with a pretty solid game. If I didn’t, I’d at least have an intriguing scene. And I realized that the trick of it—why it always seemed to work—is that there are no boring people. Real people, even when they seem boring, still have points of view, opinions, wants, needs, imperfections and tension—all extremely helpful qualities to have as we write our scenes.
So, as you start the month, if you’re staring at a blinking cursor, working up a flop sweat: just go ahead and let two boring people talk to each other for a few moments. Something will happen.
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