Skit Writing – Adding the Humor

Skit Writing

This entry begins a series of blogs about skits.  Perhaps you can find a script on our website or another website which you can use.  But maybe you have those in your women’s ministry who would like to try their hand at it!

The process of skit writing must be bathed in prayer.  God is the ultimate creative writer, and He has been faithful to inspire and direct our skit writing efforts.  Every year, as we view the final product of our efforts on stage, we know without a doubt that it is a “God-Thing” that would have been impossible without Him.

I’m sure everyone’s creative process is different.  However, skit writing, for us, begins with a “brainstorming” session. I like to have no more than three other people working with me, thinking out loud as we prayerfully consider our theme, and discuss various skit scenarios in an effort to come up with a plot line that will best communicate the personal application of the theme.  This is part one of our process.  At our brainstorming session for our most recent retreat title “A Significant Journey” based on Psalm 84:5, we talked about various journeys one could take.  Our conclusion was the idea of a mail-order bride, whose journey across country would bring her to her beloved whom she had never met in person.

Part two will be a skit writing process where too many voices make writing difficult.  Using our notes from the brainstorming session, two or three of us get together to work out characters and develop the framework of the skit.   For us, it is easiest to get a skeleton of the skit written before we invite other people to contribute.  By the end of this meeting, we have a framework of the skit plot in a very basic written format and we know where we are going with it and how it will end.  A very rough draft should be completed.

Part three will be the writing of the final skit.  This may actually take more than one meeting.  At this point, we have a draft of the skit written, but we need to work on the characters and more fully flesh out their personalities through the dialogue.  We may even discuss gestures, dialect and costuming a bit.  At this meeting, what we have found works best for us is for one person to sit at the computer while everyone else takes a character of the skit, and the skit is read out loud.  By hearing the lines read aloud, we can hear awkward wording and add funny lines as we actually interact with one another in character during this part of the process.

A final review of the skit considers where scripture or biblical allusions can be added to make the spiritual application of the skit as clear as possible to the audience.

Sound simple?  Let me assure you that it isn’t.  I like to ask our intercessory prayer ministry to be praying for the writing of the skit for several weeks prior to beginning.  No writing project is particularly easy, but skits with the purpose of ministry at a retreat face heavier than normal spiritual attack.