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Writing Humor

 The author A. J. Jacobs wrote The Know-It-All: One Man’s Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World  as he read the entire set of Encyclopedia Britannica.  What’s unusual about this book is the reader gets a look into the factual world with Jacobs’  offbeat sense of humor, as he intermingles it with quirky facts he has learned.    

Wouldn’t it have been great if he could have written those encyclopedias when we were doing our homework?   

Example:  “Elisha Gray filed papers with the patent office on February 14, 1876 for his telephone device – – just a couple of hours after Alexander Graham Bell filed his.  Gray really should have rearranged his schedule:  first, the patent application, then the grocery store.”

How often do you read an article or book and smile or laugh?  Ask yourself, what exactly did the writer do?  How can I try this same technique?  Practice, practice, practice!  And don’t miss Jacobs’ The Year of Living Biblically:  One Man’s Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible and Drop Dead Healthy:  One Man’s Humble Quest for Bodily Perfection.  

He’s covered intellect, body, and soul.  What’s next, A.J. Jacobs?

Writing Prompts

  1. Tell something to your reader and then hit them with an amusing observation or compare what said to something within your own life or culture that is universal and relatable. 
  2. Read humor.  Use the author as a model and write in that style choosing a subject which is your passion. 
  3. Read EVERYTHING you write out loud, as humor depends upon rhythm and pacing. 

 

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Find the Comic In YOU!

We laughed our way through a terrific comedy workshop this past Saturday at the Walnut Creek Library with nearly sixty middle school students improvising, writing, and critiquing their way through humor.   There was enough talent in that room to produce several books, a magazine and a sitcom script or two. 

When I asked students to introduce themselves and share a moment of humor, one boy said, “My name is __________ (name protected so he won’t sue me) and I blew up my mother’s laundry room when I was four.”   Turns out the scientific genius was experimenting in his basement, so he wasn’t hurt in the procedure. 

The young man next to him stated, “My name is ___________ and I helped my brother blow up our mother’s laundry room.” 

Unfortunately, I didn’t get a chance to meet the mother.  I wanted to find out what medication she was taking.  Did I mention these boys are available for stand-up?

After this group entertained me and Susie (Sarah Wilson www.sarahwilsonbooks.com ) as they performed a comedic drama improv with such advanced skills I wanted to call Hollywood, we left feeling elated and knew this group would go on to write and tell some very funny stories with the humor techniques we discussed and demonstrated. 

How can you be funny in your own writing? 

Look for humor all around you in your own life. 

Use exaggeration when appropriate.  Timing is important (read all of your work out loud!) and find examples of irony, satire and parody in books and movies so you can incorporate these in your own writing.

Have fun being funny!

1.  Write about a humorous memory from your past.  Read it out loud to make it as funny as it can be.  Remember that short words and short sentences work well in comedy.

2.  Watch http://youtu.be/q1mAGQAw3Oc
and use it to inspire a funny poem or story told in the point of view of a sloth. 

3.  Write a poem or story from the point of view from an object.  Remember to use his or her senses.  What does it really feel like to be this object?  Check to make sure you use action verbs!

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Make ’em Laugh! Free Comedy Writing Workshop!

What: Make ’em Laugh!  Write Funny: Learn comedy techniques from two published authors

Who: Grades 6 – 8                             

When: January 21, 2012  9 a.m. – Noon

Cost: FREE!

Where: Walnut Creek Public Library, 1644 N. Broadway, Walnut Creek, CA  94596 

977-3340

What makes readers laugh?  How can YOU create humor in your writing?  Develop quirky, funny characters through games, writing tips, techniques and exercises so you’ll produce a humorous plot, action and dialogue in a terrific page-turning story.

Two professional children’s authors who love writing share their best secrets on writing! You’ll get a chance to ask questions about the publishing world, write, play some games, meet other writers, and “talk books.”

 Led by children’s authors Sarah Wilson and Elizabeth Koehler-Pentacoff.  

Visit them at www.sarahwilsonbooks.com  and www.lizbooks.com

 Bring pen and paper and get ready to WRITE!

Register for the Walnut CreekJan. 21 workshop here: http://tinyurl.com/7humdhm

*** Special Note***  Good idea to bring a notebook or clipboard too, as we may only have chairs and not desks in this room.

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McSweeney’s Become a Columnist Contest!

So you want to be a columnist?  Here’s your chance!   

From McSweeney’s: 

It’s that time. New columnist time. Column contest time. We’ve done it each year for the past two, so we’re doing it again, basically the same way:

1. Form and content is open. We are looking for writing that is engaging and interesting, in a “we know it when we see it” way. It would probably be a mistake to look at our current columns and try to replicate them. We love those columns, but they came about by authors simply following their own paths. Write about subject matter you’re interested in, in the way you find most compelling. Our site is primarily known for printing funny things, but columns need not be comic in nature. They just need to be good reading. Please take your time to make your submission as good as possible. One of the criteria we’re looking for is a writer who is reliable and obsessive over their own work.

2. Length is also open. In general, we find anything over 2000 words begins to be taxing on readers when read on the Internet, but if the length is justified, we’re the last ones to complain.

3. Submissions should contain the following: •a brief description of the proposed column (keep it short; just tell us where you’re coming from) •one full example column •brief descriptions of three additional installments of your column •a short biographical note

4. Submitting your submissions. All submissions should be both pasted into the body of an email and sent as a .doc or .rtf attachment. Please arrange the material in the order outlined in #3 above. Any submissions that fail to provide all the requested information will be ineligible for consideration. All material should be previously unpublished, including personal blogs, Facebook, Twitter, or whatever thing is invented between now and the end of the contest. There is no fee for contest submission. Submissions should be sent to [email protected].

5. Previous winners and current or past columnists. Are not eligible for the column contest this time around. 6. Please submit only one entry per author. Pick the idea that’s most compelling to you and run with it.

7. Deadline. Submissions will be accepted until the end of the day Friday, September 9th at 10 pm Eastern time. Winners will be announced no later than September 23rd. Please include a phone number where you can be reached in case of e-mail failure.

8. Prizes. We have prizes. Cash prizes. The top five selections will each receive $500 and a one-year contract to write your column (twice a month or thereabouts) for McSweeney’s Internet Tendency. We do reserve the right to choose fewer (or more) winners than our planned number of five.

9. Responses to submissions. You will receive notice of receipt of your entry; however, because of the volume of submissions we will not be able to respond personally to each entry if they are not advancing in the contest.

10. If you have any questions that aren’t answered here, please feel free to send them to [email protected].

For more information visit  http://www.mcsweeneys.net/

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Throw Unusual Characters Together

A friend sent me the video below, which made me think of how some of the best writing can come out of making two very different characters interact  in a scene.

What happens?  Will there be conflict?  Friendship?  Humor? 

Add to the mix, make one or both of the characters be a “fish out of water.”   The uncomfortable feeling in an unlikely setting can add to the humor and/or conflict.

* Place a cowboy and a circus performer in a fancy ballroom with a king and queen.   Why are they there?  What happens next?

*A gang of thieves kidnap a Hollywood actress and a Harvard professor.  Why?  What happens next?

*Or write about the unlikely friendship in the video below.  Why did they become friends?  What happens next?
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Wimpy Kid Contest, California Writers Club Young Writers Contest Banquet, and Pleasant Hill History Contest

Enter the Wimpy Kid Contest!   $500 for you and $1000 for your library!

Deadline is June 10, 2011  For more information and guidelines, visit:

http://wimpykid.com/contest/

________________________________________________________________

Remember:    This Saturday, May 21, is the California Writers Club, Mt. Diablo Branch’s Young Writers Contest Banquet which will be held at Zio Fraedo’s Restaurant in Pleasant Hill. 

    • As we’ll have many guests, REGISTRATION WILL OPEN AT 11:00 AM, a half hour earlier than our regular 11:30 schedule.
    • To acknowledge this special event, the cost per guest is reduced to $20 per person, the equivalent of our regular member rate.
      • Sign-in:  11:00 a.m. – noon; Buffet Lunch
      • Presentation follows
      • Zio Fraedo’s Restaurant, 611 Gregory Lane, Pleasant Hill, CA, 94523

      About Abigail Samoun

      Abi has worked in children’s publishing for over a decade. During that time she’s edited board books, picture books, middle-grade novels, and early young-adult novels for Tricycle Press, Random House, Simon & Schuster, and Little, Brown. Her books have received numerous honors including a CCBC Charlotte Zolotow award, an SCBWI Golden Kite, a Pura Belpre Honor, a Smithsonian Notable, and a New York Public Library Ezra Jack Keats award.

      Abigail also edited the middle grade series Edgar & Ellen which has sold over a quarter of a million copies worldwide and inspired a cartoon series on Nickelodeon. She has just launched a brand-new children’s literary agency with agent extraordinaire Karen Grencik.

      For YOUR reservation, please send an e-mail to Joanne Brown.  [email protected]  by noon May 18.  Seating is limited. 

    • _____________________________________________________________
    • Pleasant Hill History Writing Contest
    • More information will be posted here this summer, but in honor of Pleasant Hill, California’s 50th anniversary as a city, there will be a middle school writing contest with $ awards $ for essays about living in Pleasant Hill.  Students may research and interview people to discover the rich history of Pleasant Hill. 
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Too funny for words?

Sometimes the visual says it all.  So in your writing, make sure you show and don’t tell.  Show by writing action, dialogue and specific details.
After viewing the video link below, write a scene with the theme of guilt.  You can make it funny or devious, and have the character try to throw off the clues of the evidence.  But in your scene make sure you show the character of the guilty party.  Have fun!
 
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Klepto Kitty!

Too funny NOT to write about!  Go for it.  Use this cat and/or the things she steals to create a story or a poem.  How funny or mysterious can you be?

http://healthypets.mercola.com/sites/healthypets/archive/2011/02/28/the-kleptomaniac-kitty.aspx

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Make Room for Laughter/ Take My Wife, Please . . .

When I opened Growing Up Laughing:  My Story and the Story of Funny by Marlo Thomas, I expected to read a celebrity memoir recommended by a friend of mine.  What I didn’t expect was to laugh all the way through the book with the jokes, the interviews with comedians, and the author’s own special brand of humor.

Thomas, whose father was the legendary comedian, Danny Thomas, writes of being a child hanging around her father and his famous funny friends.  He starred in the show “Make Room for Daddy” and later his daughter had her own television show in the 60s called “That Girl.”  

As a child, I grew up watching “That Girl”, and even wrote to Thomas requesting her autograph.  (Which I received on a mass-produced photo still in my childhood album.)  It was a break-through show, because Thomas did the first t.v. sitcom where a SINGLE WOMAN lived on her own without needing or wanting to be married.  BRAVO!  She had to fight the network male executives to do it, but she did.  And many of us young girls watching, appreciated and loved her for it.

But what I didn’t know then was that Marlo Thomas learned a heck of a lot of her comedy timing and techniques from  her famous father. 

“Dad adored making an audience laugh, but he also loved bringing them to a hush.  He used to tell me that a good storyteller knows how important the silences are, and is never afraid of them.  Dad controlled his audience like an orchestra conductor.  He was Mr. Cool.”

What does this have to do with writing your short story, poem, or personal narrative for our Young Writers Contest?  What does it have to do with writing your chapter book for children? 

Everything. 

Why?  Writing humor is the hardest thing in the world to write.  It’s all based on timing, and this timing is based on silences and pacing.   In fact, all writing is pacing.  So every time you sit down to write, make sure you read your work aloud when you are through.  Pretend YOU are a stand-up comic.  Even if you aren’t writing funny, pretend you are telling a story to a friend. 

Where should the pauses be?  Where should the excitement in your story “rev” up?  Where should it quiet down and relax?  Where should there be dialogue for character growth or tension? 

Many writers take acting classes.  To become actors?  No.  For the timing!  What was I in my other life?  I taught creative drama and improvisation.  I directed children’s plays.  It all ties together. 

So if teachers or editors comment on how you need better pacing, read your work aloud. Consider an improv or acting class.  Share your work with trusted writers to help you know when the pacing is right.  That’s what Marlo’s father did with his friends. 

Remember this about humor:

It’s based on the unexpected.   Misinterpretations of what someone says can be funny.  Humor is best when it’s based on character.  Humor is based on truth.  Exaggerate the everyday average to make it funny.  And finally, above all, have fun!

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Proofreader Needed for Newspapers too!

Real Newspaper Titles  (No Kidding!)

Man Kills Self Before Shooting Wife and Daughter

Something Went Wrong in Jet Crash, Expert Says

Police Begin Campaign to Run Down Jaywalkers

Miners Refuse to Work After Death

Panda Mating Fails; Veterinarian Takes Over

Juvenile Court to Try Shooting Defendant

War Dims Hope for Peace

If Strike isn’t Settled Quickly, it May Last Awhile

Cold Wave Linked to Temperatures

Enfield (London) Couple Slain; Police Suspect Homicide

Red Tape Holds Up New Bridges

Man Struck By Lightning; Faces Battery Charge

New Study of Obesity Looks for Larger Test Group

Astronaut Takes Blame for Gas in Spacecraft

Kids Make Nutritious Snacks

Local High School Drop Outs Cut in Half

Hospitals are Sued by 7 foot Doctors

Typhoon Rips Through Cemetery — Hundreds Dead

Writing Prompt: 

1. Take the article titles above and rewrite them so they are clear.  

2.  Create a funny story to go along with the funny headline!

3.  Check your own writing to make sure you don’t have any unclear meanings in your words.

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