Pursuit of Comedy Writing Dreams is Something to Laugh About

I’m a reformed joker. I used to be the life of the party, but sadly gag-telling seems to be relegated to the internet these days. Now I’m a rusty. My humor is limited to things I can write about.
The advantage of writing comedy, as opposed to performing it, is you get a chance to fix potential problems without having to worry about someone lobbing a tomato at your head. Although with the cost of fresh produce, perhaps I could save a few bucks and take a basket on stage with me instead of heading off to the local grocery store.
But I digress.
My dream for many years was to write for sitcoms. It started when I was a kid watching reruns of the Dick Van Dyke show. Although Rob Petrie, Sally Rogers and Buddy Sorrell wrote for a fictional comedy/variety show, I was thrilled to learn that comedy writing was a legitimate career.
Unfortunately, I lived in Arizona, not Los Angeles (or even Manhattan where the fictional Alan Brady Show was aired) so my dream of writing for television took a detour. Instead I took a traditional route in writing and pursued a degree in jou
alism. However, whether I was working my way through school as a waitress at Red Lobster or landed my first job as a public relations coordinator for the City of Mesa’s Parks, Recreation and Cultural Division, I found a way to write humorous skits for special events and celebrations. Some were spoofs from Saturday Night Live, others satirized city employees, but all of the humorous productions were a big hit with the audience. Even in my spiritual life as a Buddhist with SGI-USA, I penned skits that used characters in popular television shows to satirize philosophical messages.
One day I took a trip to LA to scout out the area and see what I would need to do to pursue my television-writing career in earnest. I chatted with a successful sitcom writer and she informed me that it was nearly impossible to work as a sitcom writing in Hollywood after you reached your 40th birthday. She suggested I turn my attention to screenwriting instead. I followed her advice. I’ve written numerous screenplays, but hadn’t written a television episode for a long time. Using logic, rather than tapping into any internal sources of empowerment, I decided to discontinue my goal of writing for a sitcom. This decision took a toll on my psyche. A little piece of me died with the shelving of this dream.
Then one day a concept for an original television show snuck into my sleepy, little brain. Unlike other fleeting notions, this one was a persistent nag. I had no choice but to create characters, develop a clever plot and tap the whole thing out on my computer. I didn’t know if my script would find a home, but I was so happy to write comedy again that I didn’t care.
Ironically, I learned about a contest for original pilots and was getting ready to enter. However, while I was doing research I learned about another contest. This one called for writing a spec script for an existing show. My daughter had suggested Modern Family. I watched numerous episodes several times, examined the scripts, and came to know the characters as if they were members of my own goofy family.
The bottom line is I came up with plausible ideas for an episode, had a few friends that were familiar with the show vet it, and I mailed my creation off to be judged. I did all this in the matter of three weeks. To be honest, two months ago I wouldn’t have embarked on this expedition. However, I listened to the inspirational words of Linda Johnson, a national women’s division leader for SGI-USA, and realized I was limiting my potential.
I also reminded myself of a few helpful hints from Chapter 9 of a book written by me and my friend and co-author Jacqueline Howard. Here are a few tips I’d like to share.

ERASE NEGATIVITY

• Clear your mind of negativity and imagine what you really want your life to be like. Allow yourself to feel the joy of realizing your dream.
• Write your negative beliefs on a piece of paper. Read it aloud. Burn a candle, light incense or perform some sort of ceremony, then burn the paper. As the paper burns say aloud. “These statements are no longer true. I release these lies to the universe.” Feel free to allow yourself a moment of sadness. Many individuals cry as they allow these negative thoughts to incinerate.

EMBRACE THE MAGIC WITHIN

• Design a rough plan of what you wish to create. The universe will take care of the details, but you have to have an idea of what you want.
• Once you have your idea in place, write or draw the steps you will need to achieve it. This could be, taking a class, reading books or doing research on the internet. Visualizing is fine, but you have to take some sort of action to kick things into gear.
• No matter how rough things are, remain open to the idea that wonderful things can happen.
• Never, ever, give up on your dreams.
It would be great if this story had a fairy tale ending and I could report that I was selected in this program, but the truth is none of the applicants will know anything for several months. But it doesn’t matter because I feel that I already won. I challenged my doubt (and even common knowledge about Hollywood and ageism) quickly created something I’m proud of and I got my script in the mail before the deadline. And that is a victory in itself!