I’ve long been a fan of the sweet, smart comedian Mike Birbiglia, whose off-Broadway solo show SLEEPWALK WITH ME was a hit and wound up becoming a movie which he co-wrote, co-directed, and starred in. His latest film is the very winning and highly praised DON’T THINK TWICE, an ensemble piece about members of a struggling New York comedy-improv group hoping to make it big.
Birbiglia knows better than anybody what it takes to succeed in putting yourself before the public. He recently wrote a piece for the New York Times Sunday Arts and Leisure section that offers, in no uncertain terms, his prescription for success, broken down into six key points. There’s a lot of tough love and gimlet-eyed clarity packed into this short article.
Birbiglia’s plan need not only apply to hyphenate writer-actor-director-comedians like himself. Everything he delineates here can be applied very specifically to aspiring book writers. The rules are not all that different.
You may feel like pouring yourself a strong drink after you read Birbiglia’s piece, but take it from him: Writing is a craft, one that requires plenty of time and plenty of hard work to perfect. He’s a great example of a guy who had to fail many times before he succeeded. In his case, it was well worth the journey, as the basic big-heartedness of his art is—in my humble opinion–a gift to all of us.