Writer Rider Right Here

The past few weeks have seen me do more writing of significance than I've ever done before in my life. As I write this, I am buoyed by the knowledge that I have been accepted to be a writer on a sketch team at iO West. You might consider us a humble little "Saturday Night Live". I submitted a writing sample and it was liked, so I will get to write more stuff like that and talented people will breath life into it on a stage once a month.

Other sketch writing got me to that point. I had been futilely writing sketches for no outlet the couple of years before this one, and got to where some 80 or so of my sketches were just piled up doing nothing. By chance I saw half of a show called "Top Story! Weekly" at iO a year ago because I was at a festival with an improv team. I shortly after submitted a writing packet, but it was not accepted. I have spent the year since writing two line jokes for them, watching lots of live sketch shows, and getting good enough that they have accepted and run a number of my sketches. That has been an intensely gratifying experience.

Being around sketch people, I kept hearing about "Sketch Pool". A group of writers and actors are thrown together to put on four sketch shows in a month. Teams usually do one in a month. It's a fast growth experience. Finally I determined to get in on it, and I was accepted. As I write this, there remain two shows left to be done, but it's been fantastic. There are intense highs and lows and rapidly close relationships borne out of necessity.

That last will be over in a couple of weeks, but the general thrust seems to be more and more writing, which pleases me. As much ability as I have felt I had in this area, it was seldom that some reward or validation of it seemed to come, so that if I was told I could write at a high level (for a magazine, or something of the like), I was flattered but not necessarily convinced. These days, I'm rather apt to believe it. There is much growth left for me, but I know I'm good, which is cool.