Writing Material: Quality Vs. Quantity
"If you wait for inspiration to write you're not a writer you're waiter" - Dan Poynter
Writing Material: How much is too much?
As comics we all know we have to write material. No one denies that you have to consciously put in effort to write especially when you begin to learn the basics and excel. The bottom line is you have to write so you can have something to perform. Sure you can try crowd work or to make it up on the spot but all you’re doing there is either a form of creating that relies on other people which isn’t reliable or writing on the spot without experience which is even less so.
So we agree you have to write material. Some do it just in loose concepts to say on stage, some do it as one liners, some write bits, premises, stories. It doesn’t matter what you write it’s all going to end up smudged on the back of a sweaty hand at your first open mic.
However what people rarely agree on is how much to write. Do you write your first 5 minutes and try to hone it to it's absolute best or do you continually write and test new material looking for increasingly better quality whilst forsaking the opportunity to polish older content? There is one truth here and that is that quantity will always trump quality but only if it's used correctly. If you learn from everything you've done then there's no way you won't end up ahead for writing more but if you treat writing as a chore to be pushed aside once completed then you'll learn as much from it as you would any menial day job and never progress.
What we’re trying to do here is increase the quantity and quality of how much you write because at the end of the day if you strip away all the style, pizzazz and stage presence of a comic (things that all come later) you still need jokes. And the more of those that you have then the more of a chance you have to succeed on stage and the better a comic you’ll become in the process of creating and learning from them. There'll be a lot of resistance both internally and from others about how much to write and the majority of the negative and insular thinking comes low self esteem and those projecting insecurities stemming from their own work ethics.
So here’s a hypothetical for a person starting out in standup..
You spend 6 months on a *5 minute bit until it’s as good as it can be, it’s consistent gets laughs and does the job relative to your abilities starting out. Which is good right?
On the other hand I spent 1 month on a 5 minute bit till it’s pretty good get’s the laughs in the right areas and I know what it’s limitations are.
Then I do that again,
and again,
and again,
and again,
and again.
Then at the end of the 6 months I take the best of those 30 minutes and make a 5 minute set that is **far more likely to destroy harder than any 5 you could have because at every interval I’ve been writing and learning from the reactions of performing what I’ve written so at a quantitative and qualitative level the comedy I’m producing is outperforming yours.
It’s not quality vs quantity.
It’s quantity+quality
The quantity feeds into the quality. The more you write the more you learn new avenues to get laughs, new ways to think, new ways to perform and new way to tackle, polish and sharpen material more efficiently. So that every bit you write after that you’re slightly better equipped, slightly more experienced and slightly faster at getting to a laugh.
It’s hard, yes and it doesn’t always work. But the long game is called that for a reason. And I’d challenge you to name me one of the greats who’s great from a single 5 minutes they stayed with from the beginnning. Bottom line as long as the general trend is upwards you’re on the right track. A good rule of thumb for when you’re starting out if you’re not embarrassed by the material you did 6 months ago then you’re not improving fast enough. That means not writing enough new material, not pushing yourself to trying new jokes and not being confident enough to push those jokes into your best set as opposed to the safety of older more tested material.
As for the material you did a year ago it’s not even something you should be able to say out loud without cringing.
The "Just Working On My Five" Fallacy
So many comics get trapped in this idea that they need to be working on their "tight five" for a showcase, featured spot or competition but you need to be working for the job you want. If you want to be a comic that means changing jokes on the fly, tailoring your set to different rooms, reading crowds and learning your jokes.
IT DOES NOT TAKE 6 MONTHS TO LEARN 5 MINUTES. It doesn't take 1 month, it should barely take a week and a few sets. If you do this not only will you burn out the material mentally until it's no longer recognizable to you as comedy but you'll have wasted 6 months of opportunities to write and perform something that was far better than what you spent it on. There's so much to learn starting out so take it all in and don't fret about what you missed or dropped along the way because the lessons will still be there.
I recommend this video to all new comics but for this instance I'm showing it for the logic Bill uses about writing an hour. Yes it seems daunting but at the end of the day it's just 5 new minutes a month. You break that down into a couple of gigs a week or even just one a week added to the writing you'd do in between and you'd be stuck choosing what punchlines to put in you'd have so many so just keep writing.
Now this isn’t a hard and fast rule and nothing in the arts is but if this guide is about anything it’s this above all else. There is always more you can write. There are always better jokes you can tell.
There is always more you can create.
It’s up to you to choose when a piece is “done” by your standards and only you can be the creative force that chooses to exceed your previous standards and bars set.
That being said there is always an opportunity cost for writing new material vs working on old. There’s every chance that you could write an amazing closer that you use for years that garners the attention of bookers and admiration of comics alike if you had of just stuck with writing that bit for another day instead of moving on. There’s also the chance that getting started on that new bit will result in single unique moment of inspiration that happened on that day that results in a piece of similar quality being produced. Both of these scenario’s mean you could miss out on something huge by the decision to move on or stay working on a bit. That’s the cost of the opportunity you’ve missed out on by choosing something else.
However on the whole even if you miss out on a big joke in one bit by moving onto a new premise the likelihood that a habit of continually moving onto new ideas will give you a greater return on investment is always going to be higher because you're sourcing more avenues for gold. You're tapping more wells and digging more mines so eventually that one great thing you may have missed out on will be outweighed by the increase in material, comedic skill, diversity of content and a variety of other factors that all improve as you write more.
Would you rather be an okay comic with an amazing joke or an amazing comic all round?
The downside here though is real, not fully developing a bit means you aren’t really learning as much as you can from it.So again, write and work on what you can for a premise, joke or bit. I'd recommend to try to write a little more to push yourself before moving on.
This way you’re in a good compromise between still pushing yourself creatively per bit but also not stifling yourself by staying too long. Have in your head an exit point for the bit you’re working on for how much energy you’re willing to put into it before you’re willing to put it aside. Then once you hit that point creatively try to continue a little bit more beyond and anything else you can come up with is not only gravy baby but will also increase your creative sphere of understanding that little bit more.
It’s a tightrope walk of constantly swaying between staying on a bit too long or moving on too quickly but at the end of the day the more you sway between those points you more often you exist in that perfect balancing act between and that's where you want to be.
*I use the example of a 5 minute set because when you’re starting out most open mic rooms will offer you this or less for stage time. Any room that’s offering you more isn’t worth your time because if they’re letting new acts do any more than 5 they clearly don’t value their own time or that of any audience they may have so steer clear.
**I say far more likely because who knows, maybe you genuinely made an amazing 5 minute set. The chances are not in your favour by a long shot but it can happen. However if we’re going by “Moneyball” rules for joke writing we want consistent output not game saving grand slams. Comedy is a grind and you need to be able to do well again and again so statistically and for efficacy of time it’s just not viable to spend that long on a bit. It's very easy to see comics and their sets at face value but years go into a performers ability to do a single performance so take your time while you're still new to enjoy learning what you can. Eventually you'll have to start delivering and you'll really long for the days of bombing an open mic with new material and going out for late night chinese with the other new people on the scene.
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