Getting started is so very hard to do

Gods. I've just started wrestling with this comedy, writing the first draft, and let me tell you, it ain't easy.

Starting anything new isn't easy, but starting a new story is even harder. You have to establish the characters, the setting, put the plot in motion, get the damned thing started. All of those are heavy stationary objects, too, so it takes some effort to get them rolling.

Once you get them rolling it gets easier, as they all take on some momentum and the story starts telling itself. Then, it becomes hard to stop.

This thing I'm working on is a comedy, too, which is a bit of a new thing for me. Comedy is incredibly difficult. It's the only genre where you can't afford to miss the target. If a horror movie isn't scary--and very few of them are, really, these days--you can still enjoy it as an adventure story or something else. A mystery can be entertaining even if you figure out whodunit in the first act, if the characters are interesting or the story is compelling. A comedy that isn't funny, though? Dead before it gets started. Doesn't matter how well acted it is, how clever the story idea is, how well shot it is. If you ain't laughing, it ain't working.

So, writing comedy is intimidating. I know there are people out there who do it successfully on a consistent basis, but those people are rare and should be considered national treasures. (See Dave Barry for an example. If you don't know who that is you owe it to yourself to check him out.)

Anyway, my story is sports-related, which should provide its own opportunities for hilarity.

Will I be successful? We'll see. I can be pretty funny, if I set my mind to it. At least, to me. Maybe to a few other people, too.

On a separate note--this week we said goodbye to Prince. While I've never been a huge fan of his music, I always admired and respected him as an artist, and was in awe of his genius. His death hit me pretty hard, to be honest. We're running out of those guys, the true innovators with the nerve and courage to blaze their own trails and the integrity to protect their vision from those who would corrupt it.

It's been a brutal week, in more ways than one. Hopefully, next week will be better. It has to be. Dammit.