The Comic Toolbox: How to be Funny Even if You're Not

With no certain hope of success, the hero in a comic story hurls himself into the abyss. He abandons his entire investment in his original goals, sacrifices everything for the sake of his displaced loyalty. The key here is that the hero does the right thing even if he doesn’t know whether it will pay off.

Create as much comedy as you can. Don’t worry about whether it’s any good or whether it will make your wildest dreams come true. The mere act of creation is the strongest, most powerful force of revelation there is. Nothing electrifies a day or an hour or a minute like the act of creation. Make creation a habit in your life. Revelation will flow from this, and success, I do believe, will follow as well.

if you push your limits, they become less limiting.

Concentrate on mining when you’re mining, then concentrate on refining when you’re refining.

For every desire you have to improve the work, there will be an equal and opposite desire to protect your ego instead. This creates a dynamic conflict within, and it can make you very unhappy. Eventually you have to decide whom to serve.

Kill your ferocious editor! Procrastinate later! Eradicate fear! Don’t judge! Concentrate on process, not product! And quantity, not quality! Get those words on the page! Avoid value judgments! Value judgments are bad! Just do it!

Writing a script from a thorough and detailed outline is merely the act of translating a story from one form to another.

Sitcom stories start out at a point of old stability, travel through increasing instability, and ultimately arrive at a new stability.

audiences return to a sitcom each week to see their favorite characters doing pretty much the same things they did last week and the week before that

No matter what happens in your story, remember that situation comedies are essentially circular; things always end up more or less back where they started.