Nate Smith: Writer’s Block and the Art of Comedy

Writer’s Block and the Art of Comedy

Hello, my name is Nate Smith, and I write nosesplash.com. My blog is a comedy blog, all original content. I have been performing live comedy (improv/stand up/sketch) since 1999. About 3 years ago I started writing a so called blog simply for the sake forcing myself to write on a daily basis. I had one rule. One funny thing a day. I have now scaled back to one full comedy post a week.

I don’t consider myself someone who creates comedy. I’m more like a pan handler. I sift through life looking for comedy gold. And then once I’ve found it, I polish it up and make it presentable. That’s why I’ll often laugh at my own jokes. Because I’m hearing them for the first time too, and I’m just as pleased with the discovery as you are. Writing a completely new post every week can be challenging. There are a lot of obstacles that get between me and my goal.

My obstacles are:

1. Inspiration
Inspiration may be the most common road block for any creative thinker. You can’t just turn it on like a light switch. You can’t keep it in a drawer somewhere and just grab it when you need it. Rather, inspiration is like a leprechaun popping in and out of your head and always disappearing right before you can grab it.
Great ideas don’t just grow on mental trees. I’ll scan the news looking for topics to attack and see something that just seems like it would be brimming with gems. I’ll sit down and get ready to write and…nothing. It just doesn’t work. At least, not at that point. Sometimes I can leave that idea for a few days and come back and BING! The ideas just start flowing. Conversely, there are times when I get going on an idea and I’ve got a great start and then I run out of time and have to finish it later. When I do come back, I look at what I had started and I hate it and I find that I have lost any and all inspiration for that particular idea. It’s a bitch.
Sometimes I can push my way through these blocks by forcing myself to sit and write anything and everything that I am thinking about on a topic. No editing. No pausing. Just writing. At the end I might have a page of writing and two nuggets that I can use and expand upon. Other times I just end up with a page of crap, 30 minutes of wasted time, and a wife who wants to know why I haven’t done the dishes.
That being said, when I push myself to keep at it and write on a regular basis, much like Stella I eventually get my groove back. All the stars align and I start popping out great one liners like a pez dispenser.

2. Work
Work is something we all have to do. My main goal in life is to be a professional comedian. By that I simply mean I want to make a living from creating and/or performing comedy so that I don’t have spend time working 40 hours a week at another job. I’d be happy to make minimum wage if it was for comedy. But…until I manage to achieve that goal, just like everyone else I’ve got to go to work every day.
I actually like my job. My company asks us not to publicize our employment online, so I can’t tell you about it (it’s nothing clandestine or exciting). But I love my job. That being said, it takes up a lot of my time. Time that I’d rather be spending on hunting down the inspirational leprechaun and his pot of comedy gold.
Back in 2006 when I first starting writing my blog I had a desk job where I did a lot of mindless data entry. This gave me endless hours to think and my lunch breaks were a frenzied 60 minutes of comedic down pour.
But for the last two years I’ve worked retail (there’s a hint, but I’m still not telling!) and I spend 8 hours a day on a sales floor engaging in conversation with customers. The upside to this is I’m not going completely crazy from sitting at a desk 40 hours a week and typing the same pattern of numbers over and over. The downside is I have almost no time at all to think about anything but my job. And when I get home I am both mentally and physically exhausted. This brings me to the next obstacle.

3. Fatigue
I spend 40 hours a week working. And that seems like a lot, right? But you know what I do even more? Sleep. I sleep at least 8 hours a night (on average), 7 days a week. That’s 56 hours. That’s a 1/3 of my week! So there’s that little chunk of time. Of course those luxurious 8 hours of sleep are about to be whittled away by my next obstacle… ahem… bundle of joy.

4. Baby!
That’s right, my wife and I are having a baby! I would never call my first born child a hinderance but…fatherhood definitely going to be a distraction. On the flip side, with all the new adventures I’ll be experiencing I’m sure I’ll have a lot of new inspiration. We’ll just have to see if I can make myself stop playing with the baby long enough to write about it.

5. Guest writing
While I am struggling to find the time and inspiration to write for my own blog I will apparently jump at the chance to write an indulgent post about myself on this lovely blog here. But I’m not complaining. In fact I’m really grateful. Thank you very much to Kendra for giving me this opportunity.

So can I overcome all these obstacles? Come find out each week at nosesplash.com.