Before you start scripting a routine, you want to have a few things in mind. Your scripts come from you, and who you are, and also—I hope—from your audiences, and who they are. You can just start writing if you want—I once wrote an entire movie without any real planning. It took forever, and the result was poorly structured. Now I don’t start writing until I know what I want, and what my audiences want, and where those overlap most effectively.
In the next column, we’ll look at specific examples of scripting questions I have worked on, and the answers we developed. But that won’t help unless you’ve answered some basic questions for yourself. So my first suggestion to improve your magic is to take out your computer or phone and answer the six questions below. Even if your answer is, “I don’t know, I’ve never thought of that before,” that’s still a step forward.
Think about it. And then write it down— that part is crucial, even if you have no desire to work with a script consultant or anybody else.