4. Third Act Magic Wands

Your plot solution at the end of the show to your character’s problem should not involve new characters, new themes, new elements, even a new object that we haven’t encountered before. The ingredients to your plot resolution should have been there almost all along. Your character needs to climb down, change their mind and/or do that thing they didn’t want to do which, surprise surprise, turns out to be not as bad as they expected. Or worse, but with a positive side-effect.

5. No Clear Moment of Success/Failure

What’s your clear toss? I mention it again because it really is important. (See Chapter 2.6) How does the audience know our character has succeeded or failed? Your character wants something – what is it and how do we know they’ve achieved it? There has to be a critical moment, a swift reveal of something tangible – ideally a hot prop. It could be an object of significance that is handed over, or destroyed. Or something broken is fixed. Something lost is found. A form of words said to someone – an apology, a proposal or involuntary verbal response. We, the audience, need to know in advance what that is.

An example of this is Hank Kingsley in The Larry Sanders Show (Season 1, Episode 7). Hank is holding out on his contract because he wants to be taken seriously by the studio. He demands a golf cart that he can drive around the set as part of his new deal. ‘I want a golf cart’ is the key. When we see him in one, we know he’s won - except there's a nice twist. He gets the cart, but we discover he's paid for it himself to save face. When you’re plotting the show, ask yourself, what’s your golf cart? And can we all see it at the end, please?

6. Too slow

Comedy is fast. And your plot can be escalating and have a golf cart ready to go, but can you get there faster – and go one better, one bigger after that? When plotting Miranda, we would try and think what the huge set-piece scene for the ending would be, and then how to get there half way through the show rather than spin it out to the end. So we would deal with the fall-out from that big scene which would lead to an even bigger one. In the episode of Miranda I mentioned in Chapter 2.8.3, with Miranda reading ‘Mein Kampf’ to children and punching a vicar, there is a whole first act in which Miranda has to give a eulogy to a full church at a funeral for an unknown person and falls into a grave. Say what you like about Miranda, it’s not slow. 

Buy Writing That Sitcom here.