humor

Quick Links: 7 Serious Tips for Writing a Humor-Filled Novel

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Quick links, bringing you great articles on writing from all over the web.

As a big fan quirky funny books such as The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Universe or any of the late great Sir Terry Pratchett novels, I would love to be able to write humorous fiction. But writing funny stories is a lot harder than it looks and there is a bunch of interesting mechanics behind it. To learn more, check out the post by Jim Hardison at Writer’s Digest.

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7 Serious Tips for Writing a Humor-Filled Novel

By Jim Hardison

When you’re reading a book filled with humor writing that makes the milk you’re drinking squirt out your nose, like The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, the tone and the jokes often feel as natural and effortless as laughter. Right after wondering why the book didn’t come with a warning label about drinking milk while reading, you might even imagine that writing comedic material is easy. The truth is that writing great, silly fiction is hard, but it’s a skill you can hone if you’re willing to put in the same kind of effort you’d put into writing great serious fiction. So here are seven serious tips for writing a silly novel.

 

This guest post is by Jim Hardison. Hardison has worked as a writer, screen writer, animator and director in entertainment and commercials since graduating from Columbia College of Chicago in 1988. He is the author of The Helm, which YALSA praised as one of 2010’s best graphic novels for young readers. He co-founded Character LLC in 2000 and has given story advice to many of the world’s largest brands, such as Target, Verizon, Samsung, McDonalds and Walmart, and has even appeared on NBC’s “The Apprentice” as an expert adviser on brand characters. Hardison lives in Portland, Oregon with his wife, two kids and two dogs. Fish Wielder is his first novel.

1. Know your genre well enough to play with it.

The genre of your story can be a rich source of humor writing. Knowing your category will give you endless material to parody and poke fun at. Start by making a list of the conventions, clichés and tropes of your genre so that you can choose which ones to turn on their heads in your story. You can even find readymade lists of clichés on the submission guidelines pages of magazines and publishers where they note things they don’t want to see ever again. For example, the scifi and fantasy magazine Clarksworld has a list here: http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/submissions/ that includes talking cats and swords.

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If you liked this article, please share. If you have suggestions for further articles, articles you would like to submit, or just general comments, please contact me at paula@publetariat.com or leave a message below.

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Quick Link: Breaking Funny

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Quick links, bringing you great articles on writing from all over the web.

I happen to have a very dry sense of humor but I love books that make me laugh. Even the ones with groaners – Piers Anthony I am looking at you. Ann Garvin guest posts at Writer Unboxed on why humor is important to a good story and has some helpful tips on how you can incorporate more humor into yours.

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Breaking Funny

It is a fact that humor is good for what ails you.
It is a fact that humor is good for what ails you.

June 26, 2016
We’re so pleased Ann Garvin has stopped by Writer Unboxed today! Ann is the co-founder of The Fifth Semester, ‘where writers are mentored from inspiration to publication.’ She is the author of the forthcoming book I LIKE YOU JUST FINE WHEN YOU’RE NOT AROUND and the founder of Tall Poppy Writers. You can learn more about Ann on her website, and by following her on Twitter.

Want to write funny but don’t think you’re funny? Ann has something to say about that.

Breaking Funny

I’ve been teaching writing for a long time now and I often hear some version of this statement, “I’m not funny so I don’t even try to write humor into my books,” or “My books are about very dark topics and I’m not sure humor would fit in the story line.”

I think the response to both of these statements is to try to infuse humor, even if you aren’t naturally funny, even if you are writing about very, very difficult topics. Here’s why.

I’m going to borrow from my history as a nurse and a conversation I had with a male physician about labor pain. He said, “I’ve never been in labor, but I did have a kidney stone once and I hear the intensity is similar to that of having a baby.” I was both pleased that he was trying to understand but also irritated, as any woman might be when a man compares a microscopic piece of crust to an eight-pound human, but that’s a fight for another day.

Since I’ve had both a kidney stone and two babies I’m going to prove him wrong and work to sell you on trying comedy in the worst of situations.

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If you liked this article, please share. If you have suggestions for further articles, articles you would like to submit, or just general comments, please contact me at paula@publetariat.com or leave a message below.

Bad Advice for Writers! NaNoWriMo Edition

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This post by G. Doucette originally appeared on The Huffington Post on 10/28/14.

We at Bad Advice for Writers have thus far only concentrated on the act of writing, ignoring important things to like how to behave like a writer and the importance of not understanding how social media works.

Today, on the eve of NaNoWriMo*, we will focus on bad advice for the novelist. We feel we should make this distinction insofar as some of this advice might actually not be bad advice if you are planning on a work of non-fiction.

(*NaNoWriMo is short for National Novel Writing Month. It takes place in November because that is a month that everyone celebrates for the fact that it is indeed a month long.)

 

Advice #1: Start notifying people about it before you’ve written it

Before writing a great novel, it’s always a good idea to alert important people in the publishing industry, so they’re prepared to read it when it’s finished. You may receive requests to see it before it’s even done!

Our advice is to craft an email blast and send it to everyone involved in publishing, even if that someone is the security guard at the Time/Life building. Remember: selling is all about networking! And networking is something we read about somewhere!

 

Read the full post on The Huffington Post.

 

A Shower of Golden Rules – or How to Make Social Media Work for You

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This post by Derek Duggan originally appeared on Words With Jam on 10/1/14.

There are a lot of pressures on writers these days. Not only do you have to write books and stuff but now, with the demands of an ever present public, you have to write about other things across several platforms.

This can seem a little daunting to the novice, but there are some simple rules and once you follow them you’ll be laughing all the way to the bank (and then, as a writer, crying all the way home again). First, and most conspicuously, you will have to make regular posts on social media sites. This can be a little bit tricky as you have to show people that you, as a writer, are better than everyone else while making yourself seem like a regular Joe Soap at the same time. It doesn’t matter which platform you choose, the rules are the same.

 

1. Wine/alcoholic beverages. You have to mention wine in at least every other post or people will think you’re not an alcoholic and therefore not a real writer. It doesn’t matter if you’re really a teetotaler, you still have to post things like – Hey, is it wine o’ clock yet? – or – It must be beer thirty – or – It must be time to down a bottle of whiskey and shit the bed by now! Nobody will buy your work if you don’t do this. In a recent study at the British University of Made up Studies it was found that the amount of times wine was mentioned on a writer’s time line was directly proportional to the amount of sales achieved. And that’s a fact. If you can’t think of any wine related thing to say why not simply post a link to some online article that says drinking lots of wine makes you really good at doing everything and makes you really healthy and people who live under bridges and shout at traffic are just doing it wrong. This will help you to connect with regular alcoholics and convince them to buy your stuff.

 

2. Work in progress. You have to mention this from time to time or people might forget that you’re not just someone who lives under a bridge and shouts at traffic. Don’t go into details – just say something about drafts and word counts and that should keep everyone happy. In this way you can connect with regular people by pretending that you do some work too and don’t actually spend the whole day farting about on the internet.

 

Click here to read the full post on Words With Jam.

 

10 Things You Should Never Say to a Novelist

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This post by Josie Brown originally appeared on her Author Provocateur site on 6/9/14.

I’m being serious.

Okay, here goes:

 

1. “I’d write, too, but I can’t stand the thought of all the trees I’d be killing.” 

Yes, I’ve heard this one. My response back then was, “Don’t worry. You won’t sell enough books to raze a sapling, because your pub house won’t push you that hard to begin with.”

Today, I’d add, “And besides, most books are digital, so you can’t use the tree-killer bullshit as an excuse not to write anymore.”

 

2. “I’d write, too, but I just can’t make the time.”

Good. Stay busy. The world doesn’t need anothor author. Here’s a hint: It’s not a hobby. It’s a profession.

 

3. “Why don’t you kill off your series’ villian?” Because then I wouldn’t have a series. And if I don’t have a series, I don’t have the rent money. I’ll make you a promise: when and if he quits paying the rent, I’ll quit writing about him.

 

Click here to read the full post on Author Provocateur.

 

Written Off: Jennifer Weiner's Quest For Literary Respect

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This profile by Rebecca Mead originally appeared on The New Yorker on 1/13/14.

Early one morning in November, five hundred clinicians gathered at the Philadelphia Airport Marriott for the twenty-third annual Renfrew Center Foundation conference, devoted to the understanding and treatment of eating disorders. The keynote speaker, Jennifer Weiner, the best-selling novelist, was there to offer a personal perspective on weight issues, with a talk entitled “The F Word: On Growing Up Big, Speaking Out Loud and Raising Betty Friedan Girls in a Britney Spears World.”

The Renfrew foundation’s Web site described Weiner’s 2001 début, “Good in Bed,” now in its fifty-seventh printing, as “the first ‘chick-lit’ novel featuring a large protagonist.” The character, Cannie Shapiro, established the template for a number of Weiner’s subsequent heroines: clever, quippy young women whose dress size tends to be well into the double digits. Her characters navigate the perils presented by lacklustre boyfriends or disappointing husbands, slender mean girls, dysfunctional families, and self-esteem issues. “Nobody’s going to date me looking like this,” Cannie tells the tall, handsome, kindly doctor who interviews her for a weight-loss study. “I’m going to die alone, and my dog’s going to eat my face, and no one will find us until the smell seeps out under the door.” Despite their travails, Weiner’s heroines arrive at happy endings that defy cultural prejudices while upholding the implausible conventions of a Hollywood romantic comedy. (Cannie’s tall, handsome, kindly doctor falls madly in love with her.) Weiner’s second novel, “In Her Shoes,” was actually made into a romantic comedy, in 2005; it starred Toni Collette, as the brainy, full-figured heroine, and Cameron Diaz—featured prominently on movie posters—as her skinny, feckless sister.

Weiner, who is forty-three, was outfitted as if for a cocktail party, in a scarlet sleeveless dress and nude stilettos. Her makeup had been applied, before dawn, by a professional; her long, dark-brown hair was loose and shiny. She looked pretty and polished but approachable, like a co-host on “The View.” Weiner, who has a degree in English literature from Princeton, is cognizant of the expectations that attend a writer of commercial women’s fiction. “Handbags are important signifiers,” she told me. (Lately, she has leaned heavily on an orange Givenchy tote.) Her outfit projected confidence, but it also gave her an opportunity to reveal a winning vulnerability. After ascending the podium, she began, “Good morning, Renfrew Center clinicians and therapists. Or, as I have been affectionately referring to you in my head, the people I don’t need to wear Spanx for.”

 

Click here to read the full profile on The New Yorker.