If you're at all interested in this project, you probably have at least one idea for a sketch that came to you while you were on your way to work or picking your nose. You didn't have time to write it down then (or couldn't because your finger had a booger on it) but you planned to write it later. And now that National Sketch Writing Month is here, you might be thinking that this is the perfect time to write your sketch!
Here's the problem: if you've been holding on to that idea for a long time, you are probably in love with it, or at least seriously crushing on it. You probably know a few key lines and have it already cast and acted out in your head, and everybody is laughing and cheering you on and throwing rose petals at your feet.
But NaSkeWriMo is not about love. It's about output. It's about habits. It's about teaching yourself to write when you don't have ideas, and about coming up with something, so that later you can re-read what you wrote and find what was good about it and edit it into something great.
If you start with an idea that you've been holding on to for too long, you will probably be pretty unhappy with your first draft. You might be tempted to keep working on it and get exhausted and maybe you will finish it but in the end you will conclude that this is just too much work! Who could possibly do this 30 times in one month?
Instead, spend the first week or two writing sketches starting only with the vaguest of ideas. Single word suggestions are good. Or watch the news for inspiration. But start with a new idea, that you haven't fallen in love with yet. Because if you're not attached, you will have an easier time writing and getting it done.
You won't be concerned about whether it is perfect. In fact, you will probably be pleasantly surprised at how good it is, considering you had no expectations for it to begin with. (That idea you love, however, will never come out as great as it was in your imagination.)
After a week or two, you'll have momentum, and then you can attack that sketch idea you have been sitting on for too long. But by then you will be prepared to handle the mediocrity of a first draft, and know that, if it doesn't ultimately work out, you will be able to fall in love again.
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