Tips for adding humor to your writing

You’ve seen it in movies. You’ve seen it in books. You’ve seen it everywhere and perhaps never noticed it. It’s a humor device called “Irony” and it’s one trick that authors use to make their characters and plot lines interesting and funny. Irony is, to quote Webster’s, “a method of humorous or subtly sarcastic expression in which the intended meaning of the words used is the direct opposite of their usual sense,” for example, when someone calls a stupid plan, “clever.” That is considered irony.

When used subtly, irony can make your work more saleable, because it makes the characters more interesting and fun to read about. It makes the characters more likeable because it gives them a fault that people can relate to. Who hasn’t thought of himself as something he is really not? It also gives your work more depth. An example from my recent reading is Jonathon Stroud’s Bartimeaus Series. His genie talks like an all powerful, ferocious, intimidating, godlike creature, when all his actions indicate that he is cowardly, and not as strong or smart as he thinks he is. This makes for some hilarious and clever situations that are very fun to read about. Another example from a very popular work is Diary of a Wimpy Kid. The “wimpy kid’s” dialogue is laced with irony, making us laugh and fall in love with the character. Even the Berenstein Bears has irony. The Papa Bear is always setting himself up as an expert and he is really klutzy and not very knowledgeable. In the movie, “G-Force,” a dainty, sweet little girl tells someone if they try to put a bow in her hair they will lose a finger. This is funny.

You’ll notice irony everywhere in popular fiction and movies because it makes fiction and movies popular, and it makes the author seem clever. One caution though. It can be overused, and then it makes the author look like he is trying too hard to be funny or sarcastic.

To add irony to your work, take a good look at your character. Is he a body guard? What would be the last thing a buff and burly dude would say or do? You need to surprise your audience. Make him a germaphobe who loves decorating, or have him love something sweet and cute. In the Amelia Peabody series by Elizabeth Peters, the very intelligent and mature sounding boy uses his intelligence to invent things that cause all sorts of hilarious trouble for everyone, making us realize he is not as grown up as he thinks he is. This is the type of interesting character that leaves readers clamoring for more. Author Janette Rallison has made a name for herself lacing her character’s dialogue with irony to make what they say humorous and clever. Read some of her books to study how she does it. As you study other authors who use this device it will begin to make sense to you and you will become an expert yourself.

Doughnut Therapy and Humor Author FAQ's

Note: Next humor story May 1st. April Humor story posted below.

Are you really addicted to chocolate doughnuts? Totally and completely. It drives my husband crazy. He is a health nut and never eats anything bad. The invention of Krispy Kreme was my undoing. I need to start some kind of support group: Doughnuts Anonymous: for doughnut addicts and the people who love them. I'll send my husband. He could use the therapy in dealing with my issues.

Where do you get your crazy ideas? All my ideas come from my family. The dynamics of the different personalities in our family just lend themselves to humorous situations. Me...the dreamy wife with no practical bone in my body....my husband the frugal, straight, practical man...and all my children who are bursting with personality traits just ready to be enjoyed in stories. I walk around with index cards and pencils sticking out of all the pockets of my jeans, coats, purses, and shirts, so I can record all of their escapades. Then I file the index cards away for later use.

If I wanted to write a book, how would I get published? Where do I start? My first advice is to decide what genre you want to write and then study it for awhile to get a feel for it. I once read about a romance author who read a hundred romance novels before she started writing her own. By then she really had a feel for the conventions of the genre she wanted to write and was able to get her novel published.

Next read a few books on how to write. You can avoid many first time writing mistakes this way. Writer's Digest has excellent books on all aspects and genres.

After you finish your manuscript have at least five friends read it. Then have it reviewed by a writer's critique group. This is vital. There are many things you just can't see in your own writing because of your bias as the author. You can find writer's critique groups online. One such group for LDS women is ANWA.

Finally, after you have done all this, begin sending your manuscript to agents and publishers. Study the market before you do this to be sure you're sending your manuscript to the right publishers. And remember: Never give up! Even if you have to revise your manuscript again or start a new one in a different genre. Every author goes through many modes of rejection before they finally find their niche! Best of luck in your writing endeavors!

Humor Author FAQ's

Here are more answers to frequently asked questions people ask me as a humor author!

1. What’s the secret to making people laugh? Writing humor is like drawing caricatures. You take true things that happen, or annoyances that are common to most people and you enlarge or exaggerate them and make them silly. For example…In one essay, I have exaggerated my problems with garden pests into a war against bugs…and I have enlarged my daughter’s love of nature to be a crusade to save roly-poly’s. Humor is also about surprises…you have to set people up with a very serious point and then totally hit them out of thin air with something ridiculous. Irony is also a big part of making people laugh. When you take a person who thinks he is suave and cool and he's totally not...that is funny.

2. What about the characters, are they part of the humor, and are they true to life? The characters are what make the story funny and interesting. How they overcome their various ridiculous obstacles is something that puts the icing on the cake, humor-wise. The characters are sort of true, but exaggerated. I have taken true characteristics of people in my family and exaggerated them in each person to make them funny. For instance I have a mind that is always coming up with impractical new ideas to solve problems…and in the stories I blow that trait up into a character who is constantly coming up with these outrageous schemes to solve every tiny family issue.

Humor Author FAQ's and Green Submarines

Hey everyone! I thought I'd start posting some frequently asked questions that people have been asking about my journey to becoming a humor author. So here are the first two:

1. Are the crazy events in your "Confessions..." stories true? All of the stories are based on true events, but I have highly exaggerated the events into a form of fiction based on real life. For example, my son really did dump out ten pounds of powdered milk all over the floor. It made a huge mushroom cloud but I exaggerated it to be a complete white out in the kitchen. You'd be surprised at what is truth and what is fiction. I actually did nail six shelves onto my bedroom window in order to grow tomato plants. My husband was ready to kill me....luckily he knew about my crazy streak before he married me. :-)

2. So do you really perform acts of Zucchini crime with your children on Sundays? I’ve thought about it and been very tempted. But what we really did was just make signs on boxes pleading with people to take these big green submarines that we had grown in our garden. Of course, no one would take them. So we had to eat them for days and days and days....We still have some in the freezer. Anybody know any good recipes?