What do you have to say?

If you don’t have anything to say you’re writing will suffer.  Let me rephrase; if you’re just writing to expel some sequence of events you’ve constructed for your characters it’s gonna be SHIT.  It is. There’s no way around it. No matter what you’re writing. I’ve got a couple things I’m working on and while I’ve got the string of events ready to roll I’m still fine tuning what exactly it is I want to say, using the aforementioned events.

I’ve been watching a lot of stand up recently and I’m of a mind that the best comics shine when they’re trying to say something. For stand-up it’s usually about themselves, but can reach universal themes on occasion. Even on that small personal level it makes everything you say connect with your audience. A funny premise and pay off that comes and goes in thirty seconds inside a ten minute set carries everyone in the room further if you give it an underlying meaning (it doesn’t have to be some great meaning, just something other than surface).  That funny story about you on your couch at four in the morning with a tub of Bull Bell watching NCIS on Hulu might be funny if you make it sound pathetic enough. Dig in though, why is it pathetic? What does the fact that it is pathetic say about you or about society?  Is it pathetic because NCIS is a drab, cookie cutter, mind numbing, barely excusable example of entertainment which the masses, for some reason, devour like slop in a pig trough? Oh, so that is what you want to say? Great, now just make sure it is both hilarious and snappy because that’s your job, you do stand-up remember.

I do not do stand-up, I can drag my shit out if it’s good enough (this ain’t so I need to start wrapping it up). But dragging shit out makes it worse if you’re not saying anything. If you’re not proving a point or constantly reminding your audience what it is you want to get across to them what you’re doing is a futile fucking effort.  Oh, but your prose is lyrical and your characters are well defined.  Well done, but that’s all window dressing. Say Something.