I’ve been writing comedy for over a decade: humor writing for eight years, plus two years of sketch comedy. Nothing, and I mean nothing, has improved my funny writing craft more than peer feedback from a smart writing group.

Writing groups have helped me get comedy pieces published at McSweeney’s and The New Yorker’s Shouts & Murmurs.

Writing groups have helped me sharpen unfunny and unclear premise ideas into tighter, funnier concepts.

And writing groups have slowly, over time, helped me build a smarter comedy writing brain.

Writers of all kinds — fiction, memoir, narrative nonfiction, personal essay, etc. — can benefit from writing groups. And much of what I’m about to say here applies, mutatis mutandis, to those writers.

But comedy writers who don’t have peer feedback are in for a tough, tough writing life. They will suffer huge, lifelong disadvantages. Here are the major reasons why a good writing group will take your funny writing to the next level.

Pure self-editing is too hard.

Yes, you can edit your own comedy writing. But this is hard. Becoming a good comedy self-editor takes years of brain building. The issue is that we’re all trapped in our heads, unaware of whether our jokes are funny and clear. A writing group gives you a built-in test audience who can tell you if something is funny — or just confusing — before you publish it, send it somewhere, or perform it.

Giving feedback makes you a better comedy writer.

Giving feedback to other writers sharpens your own comedic instincts. It forces you to think about what works or doesn’t work. It forces you, occasionally, to think about why certain things are funny or not. Over time, you’ll start to see patterns. Your comedy brain will grow. This will serve you in the long run. Feedback is not merely a selfless act!

Giving and receiving feedback makes you a much better self-editor.