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08/01/2006: It's Craftastic!


I recently received an extremely cool book in the mail. Alex Epstein, of the fine "Complications Ensue" blog, has sent me a copy of his book "Crafty TV Writing." I've been waiting to tell y'all about it until after I finished reading the whole thing, but my schedule has conspired against me. So, although I haven't finished it yet, I'm going to tell you right now that there's a lot of really valuable stuff in there. Alex covers some of the same joke types, in fact, that I've discussed here.

So far, my favorite bit of advice in there is this:

"It takes many bad jokes to find a good one."

Mm. I nod and murmur "how true." One of the tricks to spec writing is to keep trying to beat your own jokes. You have the luxury of time, remember. It's okay to work on a joke -- shorten it, rethink it, reverse it, try a whole different joke area... until you find the approach you like best.

Thanks for the book, Alex!

Lunch: the Tomato-Basil Spaghettini from California Pizza Kitchen. Get it with the added goat cheese.