How to Write Humor

If you’ve read Mark Twain, Oscar Wilde, or even Terry Pratchett you were probably captivated by their great sense of humor. These authors have something in common and that is that they were able to include humor in their writing in such a way that could only be for the benefit of the story.

If this is your first time here, then some introductions are in order. We are Blue Raven Club and we offer useful tips to help new writers write the story they have inside. If this is your case, stick around and we’ll make sure you don’t regret it.

Humor is such a powerful tool. It’s its ability to bring people closer, lighten the mood and make people enjoy the text better that can make it a writer’s best ally.

Most people think that you are either funny or not. As if comedy was some sort of gift and not an acquired ability. Well, these people… are right. Despite that, not being a funny champ doesn’t mean that you cannot master the art of flavoring your stories with a little bit of humor.

So, if you’ve always thought you were lacking that funny bone, let me tell you my dear friend that finding something funny, means that you have a sense of humor, and that’s a great start!

But your wit has to come first in this praised adventure. The key to nailing it is to refine your sense of humor as a writer. So don’t be sad if you are not a hilarious sitcom scriptwriter. Here at Blue Raven Club, we’ll show you the best tips to amend your relationship with your inner comedian.

How to hone your humor as an author

So you’ve accepted the fact that you can too be funny. But how to wake up the standup comedian that lives inside you? Keep reading and learn how to hook your readers by lightening the mood of your narrative.

1. Identify your style of humor

Before putting fingers to key it’s important to determine which type of humor you have. People have different ways to perceive humor and that’s the reason why not everyone finds the same things funny. So before even trying to attempt to write humor you need to be clear about where your humor comes from.

Imitating other people’s styles will simply not work. So, forcing yourself into any other style rather than your own is an instant NO.

In order to help you see where your sense of humor fits in, you can consider some of these types of humor:

• Anecdotal humor (as its name suggests it, it refers to comedic personal stories that might be true, or partly true but exaggerated.)
• Situational humor (strongly related with quotidian situations. This is the one mostly used in sitcoms.)
• Satirical humor (mocks human weaknesses or specific aspects of society for comedic purposes.)
• Dark humor (finds humor in darker aspects of life like misfortune, death, illness and pessimism.)
• Self-deprecating humor (this one is particularly related to the writer making fun of themselves and their misfortunes to make others laugh.)

2. Be careful with timing

Timing is crucial. Not every situation can be tipped with comedy without jeopardizing the whole narrative of the story. Learn when to be funny. Laughter can be a way of riding through a smooth plane; it can also be dissociative and confusing for your audience. Learn to take a step back and read into the lines to see if the timing is right.

Choose carefully your humorous moments. Humor is a double-edged sword, and it can either add up some needed levity to your story or simply spoil the whole scene if the timing is not correct. But how would you know that? Pretty simple, if your scene is working perfectly without humor keep it that way. You don’t need to oversaturate your story with many jokes. To provide a smooth ride to ‘’funny town’’ is the best and safest way in and out of your readers’ hearts.

So breathe, wait your turn, draw a line and you will find a hook that will help you catch some good jokes along the way. Humor doesn’t need to be forced. Besides, leaving some parts of your story to complete seriousness will give your next joke the so-wanted surprise factor, which leads us to our next point…

3. Surprise your readers

Do you know what else humor is? Unexpected. Comedy is no longer attractive when it’s repetitive or when it has a pattern.

Now you might be asking yourself how to surprise the reader, right? Well, you might subvert clichés, which always works. You can, for instance, set up a cliché situation and then come up with a completely different twist that will definitely derail all the expectations. This is used for example in Harry Potter and the Philosopher Stone when Dumbledore gives the opening speech on the first day of Hogwarts:

So, don’t rush, and you will surely encounter some opportunities of being unexpectedly and originally amusing.

You might as well learn the rule of three. It’s pretty simple, if you are writing a list of elements, or you are simply enumerating objects, possibilities, options, etc. make sure the last element is different and funny. Read, for instance, this excerpt when Dumbledore tells us about the secret room he finds in a nighttime bedroom trip (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire):

Oh, I would never dream of assuming I know all Hogwarts’ secrets, Igor’ said Dumbledore amicably. ‘Only this morning, for instance, I took a wrong turning on the way to the bathroom and found myself in a beautifully proportioned room I have never seen before, containing a really rather magnificent collection of chamberpots. When I went back to investigate more closely, I discovered that the room had vanished. But I must keep an eye out for it. Possibly it is only accessible at five thirty in the morning. Or it might only appear at the quarter moon – or when the seeker has an exceptionally full bladder.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, J. K. Rowling

4. Get Inspiration

Get your nerdy side out and learn about comedy. Reading or watching something funny will put you in the mood to make up your own jokes, and it will help you know when and how to approach a ‘’possibly funny’’ situation.

So get inspiration from funny situations in your life and around you. Funny things as Dr. Seuss would say are everywhere. So exercise your funny bone and keep your eyes open and your brain wide awake in case a joke shows up.

If you are wondering how you can do so, here are some ideas:

• Try to laugh once a day (I once read somewhere that people that laugh daily have a healthier life, so now you have two reasons to do it).
• Read humorous books (If you’ve never done so, I recommend you to start by the referents of the genre, Mark Twain, Oscar Wilde, Gerald Morris. This can make a huge difference. Read them as a writer and not as a reader, and pay special attention to the way the writer crafts the scene and how they succeed at including the funny factor. You can find a lot of inspiration and you will learn from the best).
• Read blogs, articles and books on the topic, to get different perspectives and visions and then stick to the one that better suits you and your writing.
• Go to Instagram, Facebook or twitter and open the comments on a funny post.
• Go on the web and download some memes you find amusing.
• Watch funny monologues, or look for videos of entertaining stand-up comedians.

Getting yourself exposed to all of these will, no question, help you get started and ready to roll into your novel exporting witty puns and sarcastic jokes throughout your narrative style.

5. Make fun of yourself

If you’ve read any humorous book, or if you’ve watched any comedian monologue, perhaps you’ve noticed that they poke jokes at themselves more than once. And that always works. Making fun of yourself to make someone else laugh shows our readers that we are just like them, common, silly, relatable people (no offense, *coughs*).

Your readers want to read someone who’s not perfect because none of us is. So, don’t be afraid to show your awkwardness and ridiculousness. It’ll only make you more relatable to their eyes. Be yourself, with all your flaws and they’ll love you and your book!

Embrace the fact that there will be people that will not find your book funny and that won’t mean that it isn’t. That’s the magic of humor. It’s different for everyone, so the sooner you start to accept that not everybody is going to laugh, the better it’ll go.

6. Combine unrelated things

Using contrast will make a huge difference in your scenes, and will also help you achieve leverage. Are your characters in an especially frightening situation? Add a contrasting element. As the RIDDIKULUS charm goes, you can turn a scary situation into a ridiculous one by using humor. Awkward situations can be your go to and it will add a certain sense of humanity to your characters.

7. Play with words

Use puns, metaphors, alliterations and all the resources the language offers you to add humor to your story. Also pick words that are funny. Some words are simply funnier than others. So make a list of those words that amuse you and try to use them in your story.

Playing with words is a simple yet effective kind of humor. It is a playful way to make anything your characters say into a joke. But you must be a master at avoiding misunderstandings while you do so. Find new ways of transforming your own words into genuinely funny comments, but don’t do it at the risk of losing the ways of your words. Play along but never forget where you want to go, because a good joke can turn into an unfortunate gasp on logic.

8. Have Fun!

This is the most important piece of advice that I’ll be giving you. I strongly believe that if you have fun while you write, the feeling somehow will be conveyed to your readers.

Psychologically speaking, some features of human behavior are contagious. That is because we are all bound by something called empathy… unless you are a psychopath; which also has its pros when being a writer. But you get my point, so don’t get caught up by the tedious and boredom that might for instance cause the self-editing stage. Writing itself is a demanding, monotonous and mentally exhausting task. Remember that what you feel is what your readers will get, so make sure to add some fun to your writing sessions.

Summing Up…

Funny is a state of mind. You think funny, therefore you are. But with great power comes great responsibility. Therefore you must be proactive on your humorous attempts so you don’t cause a mess while trying to pun your way out of an unfortunate situation.

Although writing humor is a gift, it is also a skill, and with practice, and effort, you’ll get to improve your humor sense and your ability to spice up your stories with the magic of laughter.

Follow your heart, but take your brain with you. Because humor is a serious game to play and to level up is to know when to back down. So funny-up and join the club of those who can cleverly conjure a hilarious situation out of thin air.

I hope you find this blog post interesting, and if that was the case, please let us know in the comment section below. Do you write humor? What are your best tips for those approaching this genre for the first time? I’ll read you in the comments!