NaNoWriMo is a good thing. My wife Denise doesn't think so but I don't really know why. She's an English major who focused on creative writing so you'd figure she'd at least be supportive of the idea. Anyway, I've never successfully even started it, though I've wanted to for years.
This year I'm taking Greg Dean's "Step by Step to Stand-Up Comedy" "Joke Prospector" as direct inspiration to generate material for my stand up. I don't actually recommend the book but I'll go over what I've taken away from his really formulaic and narrow approach to joke writing.
List topics
List sub-topics
List negative opinions on sub-topics
List opposite opinions to negative opinions
List possible context to opposite opinions to create a set-up
List the obvious/intended assumptions to the set-up
List non-obvious alternatives to the assumptions
List possible context to alternatives
Use absurd context and alternatives to create a punchline (Adjust set-up if needed)
He also suggests that a 5 laughs per minute output is a good goal. That's helpful because combined with the knowledge I speak somewhere between 2 to 3 words per second I can create a general formula for NaNoWriMo to generate content for 5 minute sets. Using 5 minutes instead of 3 (The average set length for an open mic) gives me some room to abandon bad (Read worst) material.
The plan is fairly simple: Writing at least one joke for at least 120 out of 143 sub-topics every day in the month of November should net me 50,400+ words. Dean's method also goes on to steps for editing your jokes together so they form cohesive sets but editing is counter productive to writing 50,000 words in a month and he really doesn't offer anything unique.
There are minor nuances that I need to address before November during my preliminary work (For example, coming up with 143 sub-topics) but as a whole this will take up pretty much all my free time that month. With the minimum amount of preparation, this should only be like adding an extra class's worth of homework so I'm optimistic.
That's all for now sports fans.
This year I'm taking Greg Dean's "Step by Step to Stand-Up Comedy" "Joke Prospector" as direct inspiration to generate material for my stand up. I don't actually recommend the book but I'll go over what I've taken away from his really formulaic and narrow approach to joke writing.
List topics
List sub-topics
List negative opinions on sub-topics
List opposite opinions to negative opinions
List possible context to opposite opinions to create a set-up
List the obvious/intended assumptions to the set-up
List non-obvious alternatives to the assumptions
List possible context to alternatives
Use absurd context and alternatives to create a punchline (Adjust set-up if needed)
He also suggests that a 5 laughs per minute output is a good goal. That's helpful because combined with the knowledge I speak somewhere between 2 to 3 words per second I can create a general formula for NaNoWriMo to generate content for 5 minute sets. Using 5 minutes instead of 3 (The average set length for an open mic) gives me some room to abandon bad (Read worst) material.
The plan is fairly simple: Writing at least one joke for at least 120 out of 143 sub-topics every day in the month of November should net me 50,400+ words. Dean's method also goes on to steps for editing your jokes together so they form cohesive sets but editing is counter productive to writing 50,000 words in a month and he really doesn't offer anything unique.
There are minor nuances that I need to address before November during my preliminary work (For example, coming up with 143 sub-topics) but as a whole this will take up pretty much all my free time that month. With the minimum amount of preparation, this should only be like adding an extra class's worth of homework so I'm optimistic.
That's all for now sports fans.
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