As you probably guessed, one of my major goals around this site was to create an environment that encouraged me to write. I ran into a couple obstacles however:
1) Ideas. I struggled with material to write about.
2) Audience. I never wanted to offend my audience. Technically I have overcome this obstacle. By not posting, I managed to avoid ever developing an audience.
3) Being happy. Knock on wood, I’ve been really happy for years. This is terrible for the creative process, and I mostly blame David.
In addition to stifling my angst-driven creativity, David pointed out that a lot of times writers struggle when they don’t have boundaries. And this Oatmeal post confirms that as well.
So I’ve developed an ambitious schedule of topics that will serve as boundaries and provide me some structure to follow for as long as I care to.
Saturday: Politics
Sunday: Personal anecdote
Monday: Movie critique
Tuesday: Book critique
Wednesday: Day off
Thursday: Sports review
Friday: David Ode
Today is Thursday, so I have to write about sports. It’s part of the schedule.
There are lots of sports out there, but the one I’m most interested in is Comedy Sportz. Technically not your run of the mill athletic exercise, Comedy Sportz is intense, heart-rate increasing, and entertaining. Two teams of players perform a series of improvisational activities, driven by audience requests. The audience’s laughter determines the winner.
It requires team work and listening to the people around you, because you have to work off of what they say and do. I really enjoy comedy sportz, but I’m not very good at them. This is in part because I have what people refer to as a “dark” sense of humor. For example, one of our warm up exercises is called “Nothing better than!”
So one person starts:
Nothing better than a picnic!
And the next person has to add on in some way:
Nothing better than a picnic with the one you love!
And the next person contributes:
Nothing better than a picnic on a warm Fall day!
And I go:
Nothing better than hoping this picnic makes him finally love you back.
And then no one laughs, and I own what I’ve just said like it’s actually something personal. I have to do this, so no one thinks I have a bad sense of humor. “I’m going through some things,” I’ll mutter. My colleagues give me looks of sympathy. And I look embarrassed.
But I never learn! Rather, the following topics make me laugh most: loneliness, despair, fertility, infertility, and mortality, obviously.
I have my first performance Saturday. Let’s hope it goes well!
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