Alan Zweibel is a comedy writing legend and example of prolificity to all writers. He's an Emmy-winning TV writer (one of the original writers for Saturday Night Live, co-creator of It's Garry Shandlings Show, that kind of thing), a Thurber Prize-winning author, writer for Broadway shows and Hollywood screenplays, plus writing for himself in some great personal essays.

In this excerpt from the essential Other Network Writers Room series, Alan offers a writing exercise he invented to develop his dialog writing skills and train his ear to differentiate characters voices. It's probably most effective for beginners trying to develop their dialog skills and find your own voice as a writer.

Meaningful deadlines are a key to moving forward with any project. A 'meaningful deadline' means there's a specific person or people waiting to see your project at a specific time - with rewards and/or consequences.

We know one writer who actually agreed to pay someone if they didn't turn in a draft by a certain date. By the way, we are totally available for that arrangement if anyone needs that kind of motivation.

There are other less extreme measures to create a meaningful deadline: