Author: Dear Readers,
It’s the fourth Monday of the month, which means that it’s time for one of our chapter PAN members (PAN stands for Published Authors Network, a professional designation within RWA open to members who reach a certain level of sales) to visit the blog to share some of their wisdom and expertise.
This month, Cindy Procter-King is here to give us her take on writing humor.
Take it away Cindy!
How to Write Funny When Your Sense of Humor Sucks
~ By Cindy Procter-King
While I was on holiday last month, our PAN liaison asked me to write a post for the ChickLit blog. If I replied quickly, I could have my pick of topics. I didn’t even have to wrack my brain!
I jumped on the topic, “How to Write Humor.” I figured it would be a breeze. After all, I’ve published two romantic comedies that have climbed the New York Times list received great reviews amongst the three dozen or so people who’ve read them (five of them, at any rate). I contracted audio book versions of these same two novels that sent me into gales of laughter when I listened to the narrators’ renditions of my characters. I’m currently shopping a humorous contemporary romance to agents (it’s going horribly, thank you). I must know what I’m doing, right?
Sob.
As I sat down to impart my crumbs of wisdom, I realized I don’t know what I’m doing. I do what works for me, but who am I to tell other writers that what works for me will work for them? After all, throughout my life I’ve been called “weird,” “strange,” and, when people are struggling to be polite, they call me “different.” These labels affect one’s psyche!
However, I committed to the blog, and so I must follow through. Very well. In my pea-brain, the key to writing humor is to embrace the weirdness within yourself. Strike that. Let’s call the weirdness the “eccentricity within yourself” or “the unconventionality within yourself,” or even “the quirkiness.” Eccentric and unconventional and quirky don’t sound as weird as weird. In other words, don’t embrace your weirdness so much that no one other than you can connect with your writing. This is where critique partners come in handy. What might seem screamingly funny to the writer doesn’t necessarily come across as funny to readers. Humor is subjective and therefore very hard to pin down. Getting feedback on your work before sending it to agents and editors can help you determine the universality of your humor. Are critiquers laughing when you want them to? Are they asking you to “tone it down”? Do they comment that a character seems “too cartoonish?” Their responses don’t necessarily mean that you have to curb your style. Maybe your outlandish humor is exactly what the publishing world needs. Or maybe you agree with your critiquers’ points. If you do, then, by all means, tone it down. If you honestly don’t agree, go on your merry way, send out the manuscript and see what happens.
I’m not really providing a “how-to post,” am I? Where did I get the nerve to include those words in the title? I should offer a numbered list or something. That’ll seem clever!
In no discernable order.
(1) Dig deep into your characters. What makes that your heroine funny? Why is she the way she is? What molded her outlook on life? How does that outlook affect her responses to the events in her life? How can that outlook create humorous situations?
(2) Some say that a writer is either born funny or she’s not. I don’t know about that. I was born screeching and hollering. Groan.
(3) Many writers make the mistake of telling the reader when something is funny (see #2). The old adage to “show, not tell” is paramount in humorous novels, because readers want to feel what your characters are feeling. They want to identify with your heroine (or comic hero). If she’s too out-to-lunch, you can lose your reader.
That said, there’s nothing wrong with writing a ditzy heroine—that is, if she appears ditzy to other characters. But for your reader to identify with her, she needs heart. Usually that heart comes along with a fair dose of intelligence that, for some reason, she has learned to hide from others. Or she doesn’t believe she possesses. While writing comical heroines, I often discover that they have a lot to learn about themselves. She might suffer from a lack of self-confidence, or she might suffer from too much misplaced confidence. The hero or other people in her life might believe she doesn’t really know what she’s doing. And maybe she believes that herself (sound familiar?).
Always ask, Why? Who taught her to question her instincts, how did she learn low self-worth, why does she have the idea that she’s not capable and can’t possibly meet her goals? Why, then, does she strive forward regardless? Motivation, motivation, motivation.
(3) Comic characters are not cardboard characters. So watch the slapstick. Literally, watch it. In an Adam Sandler film or a Road Runner cartoon. But go easy when you’re writing novels. Slapstick doesn’t always translate well to fiction, especially romantic fiction, because the reader wants to identify with the heroine—and what reader wants to hear gales of laughter as she (living through the heroine) slips on a banana peel? (Well, I do, but we’ve already established that I’m weird).
Generally, the reader wants to laugh with the heroine, not at her. However, a heroine who can laugh at herself or doesn’t take herself too seriously is often open to the different directions her life can take. And guess what? The path to character change is what commercial novels are about.
(5) Comedy can grow from characters or it can grow from a situation (hence, “situation comedy”). When I’m brainstorming a romantic comedy, usually I think of the situation first and then determine what sort of heroine would find herself in that situation. Or the heroine might spring to mind and then I build the comic situation around her. How she reacts to the events of the plot or other characters, how her reactions drive those same events, springs from her character. For me, character and situation often go hand in hand. Sometimes I think of a first line or title and the heroine and situation both spring from that. (Who would think that? Why? Where is she? What is she doing? All right, why would she do something so crazy? Let’s dig into her background a bit more. So on and so forth). (Yes, when I say “let’s,” as in “let us,” I mean me, my muse, a bunch of invisible people in my head, and my dog. Don’t get me started on the dog!)
Nail all that down, then let me in on the secret and we’ll climb the bestseller lists together.
(Or not.)
Cindy Procter-King writes quirky romantic comedies and emotional contemporary romances set in Canada and the U.S. Cindy lives in beautiful British Columba with her husband, their two sons, a cat obsessed with dripping tap water, and Allie McBeagle. Cindy’s first novel, HEAD OVER HEELS, is now available in audio book from http://www.audiolark.com. WHERE SHE BELONGS, a contemporary drama, will release in library hardcover from Five Star Expressions in Dec. 2011.
Visit Cindy’s website at http://www.cindyprocter-king.com to learn more about her and books. You can also find her on Twitter and Facebook.
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