Tactical Humor

My creative writing career began as a humor columnist for Illinois Magazine. I didn’t realize I could write humor until I did it for money. Then I couldn’t stop. I love cracking myself up as I write and I hope the reader gets a laugh out of it too, which isn’t always the case, no matter who you are or what you write, because humor is subjective. You might find someone slipping on a banana peel hilarious. The next guy might think it’s stupid.

But most stories have some humor in them at some point, in one form or another. Even horror novels like JAWS have a laugh or too in them (we’re gonna need a bigger boat) and those laughs can be gleaned from many different techniques. Let me break it down.

ACTION: Humor can come from simple action. Let’s go with the JAWS theme here. Remember the scene in the movie when Chief Brody and company answer the screams of a girl yelling “SHARK!” The tension is building, the hunt is on, and all guns are pointing in the water at… wait for it…a kid wearing a fin. Then he points to his brother and says, “He made me do it.” That’s funny.

SETTING: The atmosphere of a scene can provide humor as well. Right down to the paint on the walls or the car someone is driving. A creative use of setting can provide comic relief in any story. Here’s a scene from UNCOVERING AMETHYST where my protag is being introduced to the cottage she’ll be staying in, decorated by her amorous aunt:
Fiona grabbed a remote control.
"Okay, honey, now here's the switch for the fireplace."
Poof! The fireplace turned on.
"And this is for the stereo."
"Ohhhhhh, my love, my darrrrlin, I hunger for your touch…" sang a Righteous Brother.
"And this works the Jacuzzi."
I almost expected Barry White to pop out from beneath the bubbles.
"Can't you just see a young couple falling in love here?" Fiona clapped her hands together.
Actually, I could see a young couple plowing through a box of condoms here, but who was I to judge?

DIALOGUE: Much of the humor in a novel will happen in dialogue. Both internal and external. A conversation between a wise-cracking detective vs. an upper-class socialite is bound to have some funny in it. The side-kick in my book is a bartender with an attitude. One of her favorite things to do is to put people in their place and teach rude customers manners. Here’s an example of that:
"Hey, bartender," shouted a man a few feet down. "I've been waiting here for ten minutes trying to get a drink."
"Oh yeah?" Cin turned to face him. "Why don't you make a complaint on my website? It's kissmyass.com."


DESCRIPTION: Similes and metaphors are a perfect tool for injecting humor into a story. Here’s one I used to describe a local publisher in my book:
Shea continued the paper but when it came to reporting, he was like a blind man driving a car. He could fire up the engine, but it was only a matter of time before he would run it off the road.

Or in describing a house, a personality, or a person’s looks, get creative.
Here’s another example:
Her hair was platinum even-I-don't-pretend-it's-real blonde, her nose small and her eyebrows tweezed within an inch of their lives. Judging from the look of her face, I'd bet the local Avon stock was seriously depleted.

I personally enjoy laughing out loud when I read a story, so that’s the kind of work I produce. So there you are, have fun with your writing and for more examples, here’s some of my favorite funny authors:

Janet Evanovich
Lisa Lutz
JA Konrath
Ellen Shanman
Toni McGee Causey
Marian Keyes
Carl Hiassen

Barb

NaNo and Goal Setting

This is the first time I've joined NaNo and I am embarrassed to say I'm just starting. But with the election over and my article submitted that was due this week, I'm back on track. My goal is to finish my WIP, OPAL FIRE, book two in the gemstone series by month's end.

I vowed to pen 50k words this month. Will I make it? Who knows, but I set a goal and I'm sure going to try.

Procrastination is a problem with many writers. I myself prefer to check email 50 times, do the dishes, feed the cat, plan dinner, hunt for dust bunnies and any number of other mundane tasks before hitting the keyboard. Something about staring at the blank screen scares the crap out of me. But once I begin, I'm in the zone.

That's where goal setting comes in.

Writers need goals to stay on track, especially if they ever want to sell anything. The editor doesn't care that you had the flu the week your revisions were due. The readers don't care that your kids got sick. They expect the work to be done and on time.

For my first book, I set a goal of 1000 words a day. For some that may be too much, for others, too little. Hemingway wrote 500 words a day and still had time for big game hunting and world travel. It can be done.

How? By organizing your priorities. Put dinner in the crockpot, teach your fifth grader to do the laundry, train your husband to help with homework, but set your goals for the day, week, month, and even the year.

Start with a calendar. Take the first blank space and write down a realistic goal for the year (or more if you're feeling ambitious).

For example: I will have written a book by this time next year.

Then break it down: I will write one page per day.
That's 365 days, 365 pages, or 1 book.
Simple, right?
Anyone can squeeze in a page per day.

Or maybe you prefer to keep a targeted word count. Or write at a certain time every day.

My goal is 1000-1500 words/day (longer this month). That averages to a chapter/week with 15-20 pages/chapter. That works for me.

Maybe you write faster than I do. Joe Konrath, author of the Jack Daniels thriller series, writes 4000 words per day. He researches and promotes most of the year and pumps out his books in February.

Now that sounds like a nightmare to me, but it works for him.

However big your dreams are, however unattainable they may seem, they'll only come true if you set goals. Then make every effort to meet them.

And if you fall short one day, you can make it up the next. The point is to try, because the only difference between a published author and an unpublished one is perseverance.

Barb