Ever since I started writing I’ve wanted to write humour well and easily,
but despite having a great sense of humour, most of my written efforts are flat
and embarrassingly devoid of any fun. So I’ve checked out the thoughts of other
writers who seem to know more than me. Here is a piece from Leigh Anne
Jasheway. Follow the link to the original post here.
10 Ways to
Improve Your Writing While Thinking Like a Comedy Writer
Does it
sometimes feel as if your writing is a dog chasing its tail—you circle around
and around, but keep returning to the same themes, characters and ideas? But
does the thought of going down a new path cause your palms to sweat and your
heart to beat like a hummingbird who’s downed a double espresso? If so, you may
have SWEATS: Serious Writer Experiencing Anxiety and Timidity Syndrome. The
surest sign: You have on occasion referred to yourself as a “Serious Writer”
without cracking a smile.
Fortunately, you don’t
need medication to cope with your ailment—all you need is a shot of Comedy
Writing 101.
It doesn’t matter what
writing style you call home; every writer can benefit from learning a few new
tricks. If you’re a fan of such bestselling authors as Carl Hiaasen, Janet
Evanovich, Christopher Moore or Maureen Dowd, you know that humor can be a
great tool in many different genres. But beyond that, the reckless act of
trying to be funny can free any writer from the fear of taking chances and
boost creativity in unexpected ways.
With that in mind, here are 10 ways you can improve your writing by thinking
like a comedy writer.
#10
HOLD YOUR READERS’ ATTENTION WITH INCONGRUITY.
Incongruity is the main reason we laugh. When logic and familiarity are
replaced by things that don’t normally go together, such as a man lying in a
hammock in an elevator, humor arises naturally as our minds recognize that
things are out of place and try to find a way to make them connect.
Donna Gephart, author of
the Sid Fleischman Humor Award–winning middle-grade novel As If Being 12¾ Isn’t Bad Enough, My Mother Is
President, notes: “I always strive for the unexpected—quirky characters,
unusual settings, wild plot ideas, etc. And I tend to find opportunities to
sneak more humor into my books through successive revisions.” But incongruity
is effective in other ways, too. Even if your goal isn’t laughter but simply
keeping your readers engaged, you can use incongruity to keep things fresh by
finding ways to combine unexpected elements.
A great way to summon
incongruity is an exercise I call the Journalistic Association List. Simply
write the words who, what, where, when and why across the top of a sheet
of paper and separate the columns with vertical lines. Then draw a horizontal
line about halfway down the page. Choose your topic (the more concrete, the
better—for example, “space travel”) and in the appropriate columns in the upper
half of the grid, fill in all the words you naturally associate with the topic.
Then ask yourself, What don’t I associate with this topic? Fill
the bottom half of the page with your answers. (See Page 20 for a short example
of what this exercise might look like, though yours should be much longer.)
Select the most interesting associations, and consider: How can you use them to
add interest to your work-in-progress?
#9 KEEP
THEM ON THEIR TOES.
Similar to incongruity is the idea of misdirection, a concept used by all
writers who make readers believe they
are going down one path and then lead them astray. In comedy, the setup of a
joke provides direction and the punch line provides misdirection, which is why
it goes at the end.
“Learning the art of
misdirection has benefited both my novels and my stand-up comedy by giving me
the ability to zap an audience with the unexpected,” says bestselling mystery
author L.J. Sellers, a former comedy-writing student of mine. But that doesn’t
mean just throwing in a twist near the end of a story. Instead, consider using
misdirection throughout any
given piece in order to keep your readers guessing.
One of my favourite
exercises for generating misdirected ideas is called Illogical Ways. First,
choose a problem you’d like to resolve with misdirection. For example, let’s
say you’re writing a novel and your main character needs to have a broken leg.
Your goal is to find illogical ways for that to happen. Starting at the end of
the alphabet (because it makes your brain work differently), list one illogical
way for each letter. For example:
• In a ZEBRA stampede
• Slipping on nonfat YOGURT
• A XYLOPHONE accident
• WEARING pantyhose too tight, causing her to trip …
You can use this exercise
to push even the most benign details of your stories beyond the obvious,
keeping your readers enthralled along the way.
#8 FIND
AN ELEMENT WORTH REPEATING.
Comedy relies on repetition. Watch a sitcom and notice how often something is
repeated before the big laughs come. The magic number is usually three—an
action is repeated twice, and then the third time, the writer goes for the
hilarity.
But repetition serves a
purpose beyond just building the joke: It gives readers a feeling of being an
insider, someone who knows what’s going on because they were there the first
time. Whether you’re striving for humor or not, consider how you might use
repetition and the “rule of three” as devices to achieve this.
#7 USE
FAMILIARITY TO YOUR ADVANTAGE.
Building on the idea of repetition, the running gag is a popular comedy device.
A running gag is an amusing character, situation or catchphrase that reappears
throughout a work. It’s easiest to illustrate this concept using examples from
TV comedies: On “Cheers,” everyone yells “Norm!” every time that character
comes into the bar; on “Home Improvement,” Wilson’s face is always obscured by
something; and whenever Rose (Betty White) starts to tell the other women on
“The Golden Girls” a St. Olaf story, the laughs begin before she even reaches
the punch line.
You can draw on the
effective idea of a running gag without it actually being a “gag.” Simply
introduce an endearing character quirk into your next short story, or end an
essay or article with a recognizable tagline, and you’re there.
#6
SATISFY READERS WITH A CALLBACK.
A callback refers to using a memorable line from the beginning of a piece later
in another context. This is an excellent tool for creating a feeling of
completion in readers’ minds. Fans of Dave Barry will recognize this as
something he frequently uses to close his humor columns. (Once you’ve finished
reading this article, you’ll see I’ve used it as well). The great news is, a
callback doesn’t have to be funny to work. Try it and see.
#5
EMPLOY THE POWER OF PLAY.
It’s very hard to write funny or innovative stuff if you’re in a serious mood,
so I always strive to be as childlike as possible when approaching my craft. As
children we were motivated by fun and didn’t have an inner critic whispering in
our ear, “Is this project leading to something worthwhile and productive?” Most
researchers and parents agree that young children (from 3-7) laugh much more
often than most adults. Clearly we knew something decades ago that would come
in handy now.
No matter your genre,
lack of playfulness can drain the creativity out of your writing faster than a
leaky bathtub drains chocolate milk and Lucky Charms. The best way to introduce
more childlike fun to your writing is to follow Shakespeare’s advice: “The
play’s the thing.” Of course, he meant this in another context—but this article
is about taking things out of context, so go for it! Play with your children or
your pets. Take an improv class. Dance badly to your favorite music. Take
recess instead of a coffee break. Just make sure your inner 5-year-old has a
chance to play at least once a day, and even more often when you’re facing a
writing deadline.
#4
STRETCH YOURSELF SHORT.
Of all genres, humor is one that lends itself best to short-form writing, which
is why it’s a great field for writers with commitment issues. Stalled in your
efforts to write the Great American Novel? Take a break and write sticky notes,
greeting cards, one-liners and T-shirts instead. I do. Behold, some of my
recent work:
• On an apron: My other apron burned in the fire.
• On a sticky note: You’re not the boss of me. Oh, wait, you are. My mistake.
• On a button: I’m now available in 3-D. Glasses not included.
The beauty about learning
to write short and snappy is that it can help anyone create attention-grabbing
titles, subtitles and sidebars. Gephart, who has written for a humorous
greeting card company, agrees: “I think my practice writing short, funny lines
… helped tremendously in my ability to come up with catchy titles for my
novels.”
A great exercise for
honing this talent is to set a clock for 10 minutes and try to write as many
bumper
stickers as you can on a topic you’re currently exploring in your writing. When
you’re done, choose a favorite.
How might you put it to
good use?
#3 USE
THE POWER OF 10.
One of the truisms in comedy writing is that it takes most writers
approximately 10 attempts at a joke to create the funniest punch line. This is
a great rule to remember as you’re rewriting your feature article for the
seventh time. If things are going well, you’re way ahead of the game.
The rule of 10 also works
in brainstorming, which is why I teach my writing students to use top 10 lists
to come up with titles, plot points or character names. The most important part
of this exercise is writing a headline that stimulates creativity. Instead of
Top 10 Good Names for a Bad Guy, for example, try Top 10 Unexpected Names for a
Bad Guy, or Top 10 Nicknames a Bad Guy Might Have Had in Middle School. The
point is this: No matter what you’re writing, you should never settle for the
first thing that comes to mind. Only good can come when you push yourself
further.
#2
REMEMBER: NOTHING IS OFF-LIMITS.
Comedy writers and comedians tend to push buttons and boundaries. Think of Mae
West, George Carlin, The Smothers Brothers, Larry Gelbart, Richard Pryor, Sarah
Silverman and Chris Rock, to name a few. It may be that people who are
attracted to writing funny have fearlessness built into their DNA, or perhaps
comedy is a socially acceptable form of expressing outrage at society’s
foibles.
Fearlessness and
unflappability, however, are important for any writer. The minute a voice says,
“Don’t go there,” you may find that rejecting that advice will lead you to the
most important writing adventure of your life. I’ve written many humorous
political essays and wondered what consequences might ensue. But I haven’t let
it stop me—despite the fact that I once came home to a message on my answering
machine that began, “This is a call from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
…”
#1
EXPOSE YOURSELF.
Comedy writers who also perform are regularly exposed to others’ material. As a
stand-up comic for the past 20 years, I’ve witnessed the work of several
hundred other comedians. Watching and listening to them has influenced who I’ve
become as a writer and performer.
In the same way, all
writers should regularly learn from other writers. If you’re a poet and don’t
attend local poetry slams, you’re missing out on the rush of creative thought
that happens when you’re around others who do what you do. If you’re a writer
and don’t participate in writing groups or conferences, now is a great time to
change that.
With the idea in mind of
exposing yourself to others’ work, I’ll leave you with one last exercise, which
I call Where Do We Go from Here? Just write down a sentence or two from any
piece of writing by a favorite author, then use that as a prompt to write two
pages in your own style, going in any direction you want. For example, where
would you go from Dorothy Parker’s, “I’d love to dance with you. I’d love to be
caught in a midnight fire at sea”? Or how about Gelbart’s, “I don’t know why
they’re shooting at us. All we want to do is bring them democracy and white
bread”?
With all these techniques
for pushing beyond the expected, learning to be silly and reaching outside your
genre, it should be easier to approach new projects from a different
perspective. And if you become a better laugher and have more fun at the same
time, I won’t tell anyone. Your status as a Serious Writer is safe with me.
Thanks to Erin McKechnie
for finding this useful post to share!
