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Entity explains how to be a female comedy writer.

Not that long ago comedy was something that was dominated by men. Sure, we had the funny women on TV (think Lucille Ball), but behind the scenes these kind of shows were all written by men.

Slowly we are starting to see more funny women, not only on TV but also in the writer’s seat. Shows like Friends (female writer Marta Kauffman) and New Girl (female writer Elizabeth Meriwether) have not only become one of the most popular shows ever created, they all depict funny female characters that are not put in the passenger’s seat compared to their male equivalents.

But, looking at female comedy writing, there is one woman who set the way for most of the female comedy we see today. The amazing Tina Fey was the first female head writer for the crazy popular show Saturday Night Live, created her own show (30 Rock) and is now involved in the popular Netflix show Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.

How did she do it? Where did she start? What can we learn from her process? Let’s go through the steps of Tina Fey’s life, about how to become a female comedy writer (and actress?).

Step 1: A passion for comedy
When Tina was born in 1970 she was surrounded by people who were all huge fans of comedy. Monty Python’s Flying Circus was one of those comedy shows she watched with her family. Her brother, Peter, introduced her to Saturday Night Live by acting out the sketches the following day (since she was too young to stay up that late). Being surrounded by comedy was something that was important in Tina’s life and in high school she started writing comedy reviews.

Step 2: Make the decision
When she grew up in high school she would crack jokes in the middle of the class and people would laugh. As a result Tina discovered: this is what I am going to do. She made the decision that everything in her life should help her towards this direction. As a result she studied English in college but soon switched to Drama since that was in Tina’s eyes more helpful for her career.

Step 3: Move to the best city in your field (probably Chicago)
In Tina’s eyes this was Chicago and this is the case for most comedians. Chicago is home to Second City which is a famous training center for actors and comedians. The most important thing about moving to the best city in your field is surrounding yourself with a good network. Tina herself was surrounded by many famous Saturday Night Live actors.

Step 4: Don’t be afraid to step out of your comfort zone
Even though Tina had a classical actor training, she decided to take classes in improv at Second City. She noticed that this was something that would trigger writer and actor parts of her brain – perfect for Tina. It has always helped her to stimulate her thoughts and be creative. If she hadn’t stepped out of her comfort zone she might have never discovered this part of her talents.

Step 5: Work hard and spread the word
Tina got offered a job at Second City’s touring group and as a result had to perform 8 shows a week for the next two years. A lot of work and sometimes very tiresome but Tina concluded it to be a very productive period of her life. After this she got a friend working at SNL (one of those perks of having a good network) and took a step by sending him some of her work.

Step 6: Take opportunities
SNL liked what they were reading and asked her to join the show. Tina took the chance and moved to New York where her sketches got aired after a couple of weeks. She recognized the importance of taking opportunities. Two years later they asked her to become the first female head writer which she willfully accepted. Under her leadership the show got an Emmy and the amount of viewers steadily grew bigger and bigger.

Step 7: Don’t be afraid to show you’ve got a female voice
Being one of the three female writers when she started working at SNL, she realized it was time to insert a big amount of female power to the show. She wrote many sketches for women and hired her female friends from Second City. In 2000 she put herself on the show as somebody who would also act in SNL.

Step 8: Keep your eyes open and create your own opportunities
In 2002, (Tina was working for SNL for 5 years now) she read the book “Queen Bees and Wannabees: Helping Your Daughter Survive Cliques, Gossip, Boyfriends and Other Realities of Adolescence (2002)” by Rosalind Wiseman. She saw a lot of potential in this book to become a funny movie. She noticed that the ways girls would mess with each other are often very creative and therefore can sometimes be seen as quite funny. Instead of waiting until somebody would give her the opportunity of writing for a movie, she took it.

Step 9: While writing, research can help to be original
When writing Mean Girls (the movie the book mentioned before would turn into), Tina researched everything that was possible about teenagers. She didn’t want her movie to be another classic, boring teenage movie – she really wanted to show a funny side to how mean, mean girls can be. As a result, her movie Mean Girls was one of the most original and creative version of the teenage saga movies out there.

Step 10: Luck combined with talent = success
After Mean Girls she started working on her own show, 30 rock, which was loosely based on her time as the head writer for SNL. She used her experience to turn it into a new success story. The show has got a record-breaking amount of Emmy nominations in 2008 (18 Emmy’s). Many say that Tina Fey became increasingly popular because her very accurate portrayal of Sarah Palin (an important politician at that time), but Tina was already on her way. So even though for some people it looked like Tina’s fame was just there all of a sudden, she had the talent all along.

Step 11: Share your story
She has never been afraid to let the world know how she got where she was now. She wrote the book “Bossy Pants” and talked about how life was like as a female boss. Many struggles women have to face were described here and Tina is therefore often seen as the example of third wave feminism.

Step 12: Keep writing and stay up to date
Tina has never been afraid to look around and be inspired by it. At the moment of writing this article she is 46 years old but by writing the show Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt she proves to be very up to date with her knowledge of the younger generation (many jokes include views on the so called ‘millennial generation’ that is filled with ‘hipsters’). Her writing will (hopefully) never become out of date.

Edited by Gabrielle Waxtein
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