Father Ted

And tonight’s delectable treat was a Q&A with Graham Linehan, creator of Father Ted, The IT Crowd, Black Books, Little Britain, among others. He spoke at length about the creative process of developing sitcoms. His preferred method is working with another person--the case for Father Ted, which he wrote with fellow-Irishman-living-in-London Arthur Mathews. He spoke wistfully of how important it is to take care of friendships. Apparently they lived and worked together and got sick of each other. They remain friends but don’t work together.

Now that he writes by himself, he writes phrases and jokes on individual cards, sometimes coloured cards, and spreads them around a room. Then he puts cards together that have something in common. This is his way of trying to convince himself that writing is fun instead of excruciating. Then he writes the first draft of a script based on these little piles of cards. He doesn’t expect that draft to be any good but it keeps the process moving.

I heard Barbara Kingsolver talk once about her writing process and I find it interesting how mechanical it is in some ways. Writers have so many tricks for breaking down an overwhelming task into discreet doable bits.

April 18