Questions from the LA Comedy Shorts Festival audience focused on writing technique, strategies and outlining.
Shinick said the he loved writing and acting equally. “I can’t see myself doing just one, but I will always be writing. People tell you that if there’s anything else besides writing you like to do, get out of this business and do it. I used to think that it was just that they didn’t want the competition, but later I understood. It’s hard. You have to schedule it and sit in front of the screen. If all you do is sit there staring at the screen for three hours, you have to do it.”
For McGruder writing is a nighttime thing. “I usually can’t write until between 10 pm and 3 am. But I’m not really writing all that time,” he admitted. “I like really get going at 2:30 and then I fall asleep. But there are good days when I go to till 4 or 5 and then it takes off and on the second day you get productive.”
McGruder believes in outlines: “It’s difficult, but if you have to do it fast, outlines help. Without one, I start to meander too much with the story. The difference between getting in and being in is you don’t have the luxury of having all that time. You just have to get up and do it.”
Sutton is also a fan of outlines. “I write outlines. i don’t like to do that, because 
it’s the writing that's the fun, but I outline and then I write.” He also shared a technique. “One trick I have is I’ll stop at the end of one day when i know what's coming next. Then I can get started the next day and I have momentum.”
So if writing is so hard, why do it?
McGruder summed it up best: “Everything that you create has a chance of being successful, but you’ve got to get it out there, even if it’s just a pitch. A lot of things I write never see the light of day, but its fun and keeps me going. And the opportunity to have a profound social influence and be richer than god is always there. You just have to understand the odds, so you don't have a soul crushing defeat that keeps you from moving forward.”
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