Book review by Steve Bennett

James Cary's book is is slightly mis-titled.

Writing That Sitcom not so much a step-by-step guide to creating a magic script, more a very long way of saying: Writing a sitcom? What the hell are you thinking! It's hard. Really hard. Your genius idea probably never get made and if it does, the process is so awful you'll hate it.

As if to prove the harshness of the sitcom environment, just days after this ebook came out, Carey's show Bluestone 42 () was dropped by BBC Three.

What's abundantly clear from the book is that for all but about six people, writing sitcoms is not a way to riches – and it is anything but easy work. Even leaving aside any notions of selling your script, creating something involves weeks of storyboarding each episode down to the beats in each scene, ironing out logical inconsistencies and ensuring your characters never deviate from their established motivations and traits. And that's before you've written a single a joke.

This is a familiar story from other guides to writing sitcoms – it sometimes seems if there are more books on the subject than there are hit comedies – but the universality of the advice is probably because it's a practical foundation that can't be bypassed. This book is not going to tell you comedy skills, which surely can't be taught anyway, but guide you through the more practical things that don't come from flashes of inspiration.

Other general writing guides can be more direct with advice on how to drive plots and complete story arcs (though traditionally sitcom characters have full circles, not arcs – they end the show the same way they started it) – but Cary is solid on the basics, and explains them as simply and clearly as you would hope a writer would do.

>What he's best at, though, is giving an idea about what a sitcom writer's job actually entails. Not just from the plotting and the writing and the rewriting, but also down to how the relationships work when you're hired in to punch up an existing script, or the etiquette of raising concerns with a director at the dress rehearsal (in short: don't, the wrinkles should long have been ironed out before now).

Though not a household name (how many non-performing comedy writers are?) Cary has a range of credits that a professional journeyman writer might have. As well as Bluestone 42, which he created with Richard Hurst, he created the Radio 4 series Hut 33, set in Bletchley Park, and Think the Unthinkable, about management consultants. He has worked on writing teams for My Hero and My Family, written gags for Milton Jones for his radio show, and contributed to Miranda.

So it's a breadth of experience, much of which he's previously shared on his insightful blog Sitcom Geek, but a reasonably priced tome makes for a more tangible point of reference – even if a hard copy would be even better than this ebook.

Writing That Sitcom by James Cary was published on Kindle last month. Click here to buy for £4.99

Published: 4 Aug 2015