[FEEDBACK] Sitcom Pilot - My Divorced Sister (Comedy, 27 pages)

I couldn't get through much of it. Not because of time. I got to page 6.

Everyone sounds identical. The characters aren't characters. You seem to know them well enough and you may be doing this justification thing where 'O but if he had read on ...' so I will. But not before writing that your first line is a terrible first line. And the subsequent lines don't help. But also not before finishing my thought: you know the characters, probably personally, but the audience doesn't and there is nothing to indicate that one has any characteristics that differ from the other. To write any more on this may turn it into more a lambaste than constructive crit. There is also no Screenwriting-101 tension or obstacles or conflict or story. You also wrote that this is a comedy? By page 6 there is not a single joke and the situation that should provoke comedy ... does it?


Okay. So I got to page 12. Good lord, exposition does not a character make. Exposition doesn't create a story or plot. Telling the reader that a character acts a certain way doesn't demonstrate it. And character background exposition doesn't demonstrate anything, in your case, about the character either (beside that all seem to be bland, devoid of character). Exposition is all you've had for the first 12 pages of the script. And again, no jokes. I thought this was a sitcom! What's especially shocking is your poor grammar. I can only attribute this to my initial fear: illiteracy. It may seem harsh, but please, not because I suggest it because by now you've firmly decided that my criticism is too harsh and therefore invalid ('have tact' &c.) but for your own sake, READ GOOD LITERATURE. Not shit. Great literature. Pick up Toni Morrison or Joyce's short fiction or Raymond Carver or Joyce Carol Oates or , you know , anything that's challenging and well-written (not Kim Kardashian's memoir nor the latest Dan Brown pop-fict). You'll probably learn something about what makes a story and character. Just do a bit of basic research into sitcoms. I understand that to you, you've just spent a lot of time working on something and that may feel good, but better writers spend one hundred times more time and effort. And they also have spent incredible amounts of time and effort getting to the point where they are. If work seems difficult to you, give up. If not, begin. Because you need a hell of a lot of it. And going over this script won't do you any good. Practice, reading, research, and more practice may help. I just don't think you will. I hope you will. But if you truly wanted to write a great pilot, you would already have taken the necessary steps not to have written what you've posted.

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