Wednesday, 5/14

Yes, it IS a formula, but at least it's a formula that seems to work.

As a writer (among other things) I'm always wary of falling into a formula, of doing the same thing the same way over and over (and for that I blame Mike Love, who once told Brian Wilson to "stick with the formula" when it came to Beach Boys songs). So because of that I do pay attention to what I'm doing and how i appraoch it, lest I become someone who just does the same thing over and over.

I would never want to do that.

But over the past two and a half years I have noticed that, when writing my TV pieces, many of them fall into a "formula".  I mention a subject, I crack a few jokes, I get serious about the subject, and then I wrap it up with another gag. I guess, without even realizing it, I've created a "formula".

Let's call it the "Life in the 906" formula.

Obviously, not every TV piece I write falls into the formula, just as every one of these doesn't (at least I hope) fall into the trap. But there are enough TV pieces that do so, enough that I've begun to notice when I'm writing that I'm writing to the "formula". And I'd complain a lot more than I am now because I've noticed one thing--

The "Life in the 906" formula, at least in this situation, seems to work.

I have a collection of the "906s" of which I'm really proud kept in a folder on my laptop. And as I was adding Monday's piece to it this week I noticed that probably half of the ones I had saved, including this past week's, fell into "the formula". I'm not 100% sure why I write to the "formula" without even noticing it, other than I only have two minutes to get my point across, I usually try to include some humor in it, and I want to make a point. That's hard to do in a two minute piece, although "the formula" does seem to make it work.

I guess I stumbled onto something without even realizing it.

So while I've always tried to NOT be Mike Love and to try and vary from "the formula", maybe in some instances it's not a bad thing. I guess it means not every "906" will be like "Good Vibrations", but if everything I were to do would be comparable to, say , "I Get Around", I guess I couldn't complain too much about that.

See for yourself. Here's this week's piece in the classic "Life in the 906" formula, with a subject, jokes, making a point, and one final joke.

(jim@wmqt.com) on occasion, apparently, the follower of a formula.