Month 5 of 12: Journey to achieving my New Year's Resolution, 'I will write funny'.
My May '24 was rocky ... with a few magical moments of "did I really do that? 🤔"
What is the Resolution?
To make Writing words funny a part of my character, personality, know-how by Jan. 3, 2025! This non-math endeavour is one I’ve been weak in forever as I’m more of a math geek, mathie, math strategy-lover, which means … I am not funny, never have been, am hopeless at it … f there was a fun test I would get 0% (which is pretty bad).
Welcome to Month 5 of 12. Here are my previous steps: Month 4, Month 3, Month 2, Month 1, Start.
How do you get better at something you’ve never been good at?
1. Understand the fundamentals!
2. Practice those fundamentals!
3. And keep doing reps/practicing the fun-damentals to make them a habit and part of me!
What did I plan to do in the month of May?
Had three objectives - would give myself a 1.5/3 or 50%!
1️⃣ Aim to understand the fundamentals of ‘Improv’ ✔ (Achieved🤩!)
and bring that way of thinking into I write funny ✔- happened when I did write 😄 (I signed up to an 8-week Improv class in April). My class has to do a show on May 30 … uh-oh … that will be a swell experience!! ✔ (went well 😄😄😄 YAY!).
2️⃣ Have ‘I write funny’ be more of a part of Math by Edison. 🖐🏼 Wait! Did do this, for a tiny bit, so not a bad start.
3️⃣ I will write something funny that will make me smile for 26 of the 31 May days. ❌ ❌ ❌ ❌ ❌ ❌ - did not happen. I wrote for 5 days at most. Understanding Improv became the sole focus.Improv dominated my time, thought process and energy, as there was the show to prepare for and but more importantly as I found out my teammates that I had to learn how to support. Supporting your teammates (having their back) is a key principle. This was a very uncomfortable, un-natural, out-of-character experience for me. Nothing about it was a cinch, came easy.
But Improv has given me a way to think about words to make them fun to write and smile at!
June plan? Take a step back and make writing a habit … again. AND bring ideas from Improv into it!
1. Take what I understood about the basics in Improv and use some of that to aid me with writing funny. How to measure this? I will be better at writing funny!!!
2. Have ‘I write funny’ be more of a part of Math by Edison and I feel I’m doing this as I’m introducing more dialogue and characters.
3. I will write something funny that will make me smile a minimum of 15 of the 30 days in June.
What did I understand from Improv that I will bring into my writing funny?
Who, What, Where (WWW)
‘Yes And’ - also known as Agree & Add
Emote! Emotion.
Listening! Listen. Really listen! Don’t just hear their words - listen with my eyes, ears, body and heart!
Building on what’s been said - add a brick.
Status
Be specific (give details, be vivid).
Look for the first interesting or unusual thing. Once the ‘unusual’ is spotted then approach it with ‘If THIS is true then WHAT else is true’ to heighten!
Feelings: I need to know how I feel about my WWW and how I feel about my scene partner’s WWW too.
Other - Being Physical, Object work, though I’m not sure how I can have those show up in writing
I need to be thinking of all of this when my writing 📢!
June here comes fun!!!