Who: Zack Bornstein

Claim To Fame: Zack Bornstein is an Emmy Award-nominated, Peabody Award-winning, & Writers Guild Award-winning writer, director, producer, and comedian from Saturday Night Live, Jimmy Kimmel Live, & Alternatino. He hosts and executive produces Comedy Central’s My Least Favorite Thing. His writing has appeared in The New Yorker, McSweeney’s, Splitsider, and more. He studied neuroscience at Brown University, and was a Rhodes Scholar finalist.

Where To Find Zack: His Website, IMDB, Twitter

When and where do you like to write? Are you the same-thing-every-day kind of writer or can you write anytime, anywhere?

Weirdly I write best in a soulless white-walled office. It’s so easy to get distracted, and the less excitement in my real world, the more I can focus on the imaginary written world in my head.

Do you have any pre-writing rituals or habits before you sit down to write?

The only consistent one I have is to check Twitter over and over until I’m sad. Less of a ritual, more of a crippling addiction.

Writers have to be master prioritizers — juggling all sorts of projects and deadlines at the same time. That’s certainly the case for you. Do you have any methods for managing tasks and time to stay productive and not let overwhelm sneak in?

I love feeling overwhelmed. I do my best work when I’m under the gun on 8 different projects, because I don’t have time to second-guess every sentence that I write. I stay organized with a corkboard with all my projects on Post-It notes and three columns: “Do” “Do Now!” “Follow-Up”.

You’ve done comedy in so many different formats — stand up, written comedy, television, sketch, etc. When you sit down to write, are you doing it with a certain format or audience in mind?

Yes. I’m a big structure nerd, and have all kinds of diagrams and story math for each different medium. Audience is always on my mind, but even more so, how the audience will take it in – does it have to be short and punchy so they don’t scroll past it, or are they sitting down for the next hour with a glass of wine? On the other hand, when I’m throwing out new ideas or letting my mind wander, I write ideas down in a Notes app or in my back pocket notebook, and then sort them into different formats later.

What’s the best advice you’ve gotten about comedy writing?

No one knows what the hell they are doing, and the second you feel like you’ve vaguely figured it out, it all changes.

Do you ever struggle with writer’s block? Do you ever have stretches where you’re not striking sparks?

Oh yes. Deadlines are my saving grace. Deadlines are my muse. Deadlines are my coffee. If I have a deadline I can hit it. I once booked a week alone in Joshua Tree with no deadline to finish a pilot I’d been struggling to crack for a year. I barely made it through Act 1 and went insane. A month later, I had a deadline from the studio, and I finished it by 8pm that evening.

What books or writers have most influenced the way you think and the way you write? Do you have any favorite books about the craft of comedy or the creative process of comedy?

My brother. He started writing full novels and screenplays in his teens, and I’ve just tried to copy him every step of the way.

What is your advice to aspiring writers?

Appreciate what you did well, but always hate what you did yesterday (and why). You’ll write better tomorrow because of it. Also be precious about literally nothing, it will all change. Unless you want to be, then fine.

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