Beat the Blank Page: Two Comedy Writing Sessions That Keep You Consistent

Have you ever wanted to write jokes, so you go out and get a fancy pen and a nice new notepad, sit down at the table, and immediately get into a staring contest with the paper?

Yeah. Welcome to comedy writing. That’s usually how it starts.

You’ve got all these funny thoughts during the day. In the shower, in traffic, in the middle of a meeting. But the second you sit down to write, it’s like your brain packs up and leaves. The page stays blank. The pen stays still. And after twenty minutes you decide you’re “just not a writer” and go watch something instead.

Here’s what nobody tells you about writing comedy. That blank page moment is normal, and it has a fix.

Starting Is Harder Than Writing

Here’s something the hype around comedy writing never makes you realize. The more you write, the more you can write.

It is literally harder to start writing than it is to actually write. Once you get going, ideas start connecting to other ideas. One weird observation leads to another. A bad joke turns into a decent joke, and the decent joke gives you an idea for a great one. But none of that happens until you get past the start.

I like to think of writing like opening the floodgates of ideas. You’ve got to open the gates often so the gears don’t rust. When you only write once in a while, everything is stiff. The gates are heavy. It takes forever to get anything flowing. When you write often, the gates open easily, and the ideas come out faster.

So the real goal isn’t to write the perfect joke. It’s to make starting easier.

There’s No Right Way To Write, But There Is a Wrong Way

I’m very proud of writing comedy, and one thing I’ve learned is that there’s no single right way to do it. Some people write in the morning. Some write at night. Some write on paper, some on their phone, some talk into a voice memo while they drive. All of that is fine.

But there is a wrong way. And that’s not writing at all.

The biggest thing standing between most people and their best material isn’t talent. It’s not having a process that makes writing happen consistently. If you wait until you feel inspired, you’ll write a few times a year. If you have a simple system, you’ll write a few times a week. And the person writing a few times a week is going to get way funnier, way faster.

So here are the two writing processes I use to keep myself consistent.

Process One: The Long Session

The first one is the long session. I block out 90 minutes to two hours and I dump every idea I can onto the page.

The key word there is dump. I’m not trying to write good jokes. I’m trying to get everything out of my head. A weird thing that happened at the grocery store. Something my family always argues about. A question I’ve been wondering about. I take each idea in any direction it wants to go.

If an idea sucks, I don’t sit there trying to force it. I pivot and write about something else. That’s the beauty of having a big block of time. You can afford to wander. Some of my favorite material came from ideas I almost skipped.

A few tips for long sessions:

Put it on your calendar like an appointment. If it’s not scheduled, it’s easy to skip.

Start with a warm up. Write three things that annoyed you this week, or three things that made you laugh. It gets the gates open.

Don’t edit while you write. Editing is a different job. Today you’re just collecting.

Process Two: Burst Writing

The second process is burst writing. This is for when my schedule is tight and I don’t have a lot of time.

I just pick a direction and write whatever comes out. Ten minutes, fifteen minutes, whatever I’ve got. I don’t stop to judge it. I don’t try to make it perfect. When the time’s up, I leave it and come back to it later.

Burst writing is great because it keeps the gears moving on busy days. You don’t lose your momentum just because life got hectic. And a lot of times, those messy bursts turn out to be the seeds for something great when you come back with fresh eyes.

Here’s how to make burst writing work:

Keep a list of prompts ready. Topics, questions, or half ideas you can grab instantly so you don’t waste your short window figuring out what to write about.

Set a timer. Knowing it’s only ten minutes takes the pressure off.

Write in the gaps. Waiting in line, sitting in the car before you walk inside, during your lunch break. Short bursts fit almost anywhere.

Come back later. The burst is the rough draft. Your next long session is where you can shape it.

No Pressure, No Perfection, Just Writing

If you’re not sure where to start, try this for one week. Schedule one long session on the weekend, and do three short bursts during the week. That’s it. Four writing sessions. At the end of the week, read through everything you wrote. Circle anything that made you smile, even a little. Those circles are your raw material. Pick one and bring it to your next long session to build out. Do that for a month and you’ll have more ideas than you know what to do with.

Use both processes together and you’ve got a system that fits real life. Long sessions when you have the time, bursts when you don’t. Either way, you’re writing, and that’s what matters.

Keep it moving. No pressure, no perfection, just writing. The point is building the habit of actually taking the time to find the funny, or letting the funny find you.

Because that’s what happens when you write consistently. You stop having staring contests with the page. Ideas start showing up on their own. And you start trusting that you’ll always have something to say.

If you want help building a comedy writing habit that fits your lifestyle, reach out for comedy coaching and let’s see if one on one coaching is right for you.