Advice for writing a Fiver

[NAHTMMM]

Some general advice, from someone who learned it through experience (writing novel fivers in the Misc forum, and a couple for the Excelsior fan series):

• Brevity is the soul of wit. Especially so when the point is to condense something down with hilarious results. You want a lean, mean parodying machine when all is said and done.
• Mix your humor. Wordplay, cultural references, irony, general goofiness, and of course poking fun at the source material all have their place. You don't have to have every single type of humor possible in one fiver, of course, but avoiding unfunny predictability is part of humor.
• As it says in the Submissions FAQ (linked for other prospective fivists who might be reading this), you don't have to put every single scene in. This is your take on the story being portrayed in the episode. Decide what's important, plus what you want to include just for the sake of being funny, and include those parts. You can, occasionally, get away with not including an important scene (or an unimportant plotline, in my case) by having the characters react to it or sum it up in a line or two.
• This may be a very specific type of writing, but general tips still apply. Brainstorm. Seek inspiration from your experiences and the world around you. Revise a lot, but not to the point that you destroy the thing you're trying to create. Read it out loud to yourself. Consider your audience: will they "get" what you're trying to do? And be willing to consider new ideas and make tough choices throughout the process.

Hope this helps!