Writing skits is different that writing prose or other types of writing. That's kind of obvious. You're relying much more on people's ability to imagine the scene because there's very little in the way of description. It's all about what people say and how they say it and how they act and emote. I'm not the greatest skit writer in the world but I do have a lot of experience under my belt so I thought I'd write about it.

First are the characters. Especially for CRS (Cirran Restoration Society) skits, I'm dealing with real people for the most part. And they're people that I don't know well. Somehow I need to personify them, give them hooks that readers can identify with that character, and yet not go overboard and make them into really bad charicatures.

Some people are easier than others. Take Gerry. He writes little skits too so I have a good idea of how his character interacts. I don't write him in the same way that he writes himself, but I hope I'm close enough that readers don't notice. Jason was also easy. He has a project, Cirran Logic -- some sort of hardware firm. It's easy to derive that he's a more or less typical tech geek, and if there were others I'd have to differentiate him more.

Then there's the other end of the spectrum. Paul has posted occasionally in the last couple of years. He doesn't have a project or a tag line or anything I can get a handle on. He's just this fuzzy blob to me. James is a little better. He joined the list recently and has posted a few times. We don't know too much about him but I have a couple of facts to go with. One, he uses his sister's email account. Two, his writing style and grammar is atrocious. Both combine to give me a picture of someone who's pretty young.

That's still not quite enough. If you look at the skit 26, Paul and James are almost interchangeable. Same to a certain extent for Gerry and Jason. By skit 27 I have assigned archetypes to Paul and James and fleshed them out. Calli, who joins in skit 27, and being the only girl, becomes the Goddess' favorite kid sort of by default. That's kind of funny since I've met Lori (Calli) and she's like mid-30's. But it fills an archetyp

Archetypes are an important tool. Use different ones to characterize people and make them distinct from each other. Calli is the young, eager wannabe who adores the Goddess. James is the young newcomer who doesn't know the customs of New Cirra. There will be times when James plays the straight man or the unknowing dupe. Paul becomes the sort of straight up voice of reason with twisted little secrets that litter his life. Jason is of course the techno- geek. Gerry is Gerry.

Most of the material I put into CRS skits is about me. All the characters have a little bit of me in them. It's the only way I know how to write. All the skits start out with a simple plot, I start writing and it just goes from there. Very little actually gets done because I'm trying to cram as many jokes and one-liners as I possibly can, occasionally referencing what other people have written in emails or what I know about people. And making a lot of guesses, both educated and wild suppositions.

In the end I try to maintain self-consistency, keep references accurate, and write something that I enjoy reading. I've always said write for yourself first, which I do. I believe that some people will find some of what I write amusing, and that's all you can hope for. Good thing I don't do this for the feedback because people just don't tell you anything. Even when I write to my friends, they're just a bunch of inanimate rocks for all I can tell. That can get discouraging.

A few rules that I have when writing CRS skits. The Goddess is really not that cruel, more of a big sister than a wrathful figure that other people sometimes depict. She doesn't call anybody by name, doesn't like ostentatious use of Power, loves television and is a bit flighty. For characters in general I don't do any permanent harm, try not to humiliate them too much, don't portray them as mean or base. I try to keep it at the good, clean fun level.