puns
Happenstance and Other Things That Make You Laugh
I gravitate towards humor. Those side-splitting, gut-wrenchingly funny books are my favorite. Janette Rallison‘s books always make me laugh.
And I’ve found that I love to write that way . . . but MAN! Not so easy (I’m still aspiring to it).
So for any others out there who may be interested in writing humor, here are some ways to inject humor into your book.
- Slapstick: Have your MC run into a pole, or trip over their own two feet. Putting several such instances in a series of events is even better. Good old three stooges comedy.
- Wordplay: Humor with words can come in many forms—self-deprecation; witty, sarcastic comments; and you know how you come up with the most clever comebacks about five minutes too late? Let your MC use them, and bonus, your brilliance is no longer wasted.
- Embarrassing situations: Remember that dream with you at your High School pep rally wearing only your underwear? Make it real for your MC. OR just take your own most embarrassing moment ever and make your MC suffer it, too. (Note: A cheerleader sliding down a mud hill and landing in a muddy puddle at the bottom while the whole boys basketball team watches—not that that ever happened to me—may not work if your book is set in medieval times. Maybe a dairy maid could fall into a mud puddle while the blacksmith’s son [who she’s secretly crushing on] watches. You get the idea).
- Happenstance: Who hasn’t seen the bus drive through a mud puddle soaking the poor man at the bus stop who was just having the worst day ever? Total happenstance situation.
- Puns: You know, when your MC is deciding if they should really knock on the door of Apt. 2B where their crush lives, and they say to themselves: “2B or not 2B . . .” Punny, punny, punny.
- Some things are just inherently funny: A fat lip. The word Aardvark. Dodos. Monkey brains. A talking cucumber. Road signs that say “Men Working.” Etc., etc.
So do you write humor? What sort of humor makes you laugh hardest?