Hatrack River Writers Workshop: Humor Writers

This is topic Humor Writers in forum Open Discussions About Writing at Hatrack River Writers Workshop.

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Posted by tigertinite (Member # 4803) on :

Does anyone here write humor? I have noted a lack of humor in the novel and short story sectors (With the exception of World Domination 101), am I the lone ranger of humorous writers here or are there other quiet bretheren (or sisteren) who write to tickle the funny bone of their readers?

Posted by ChrisOwens (Member # 1955) on :

I've only written the rough draft of one short parody and the first paragraph of another. Otherwise, it's all doom and gloom. Then again, I don't read much comedy, therefore GIGO.

Posted by RMatthewWare (Member # 4831) on :

It depends on your definition of humor.

If you mean pieces that are supposed to be mostly humor (comedy), those are a tough sell. A lot of zines will say no to humor off the bat.

If you mean integrating humor into an otherwise serious work, then I do that all the time.

Matt

Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :

I'm not above it, but in most of my literary work, the characters might make jokes but the story itself isn't particularly funny. (There are a few scattered exceptions, though.)

Posted by Matt Lust (Member # 3031) on :

Humor is as Humor does.

I'd suggest reading Spider Robinson for a "lite-hearted" approach to sci-fi if you are comfortable with a little more racy topics.

Though he never is explicit, Spider is suggestive sometimes.

Posted by Balthasar (Member # 5399) on :

You need to read Connie Willis. She's known for being one of the few SF authors who includes humor in her stories. I think she's very funny.

Posted by KayTi (Member # 5137) on :

I'm in on humor!

Not that I could ever say that what I write is straight humor, but I definitely aim more toward light hearted. My biggest issue is that I can't always come up with something funny *at the time* - it's usually ages later when I think to myself "Oh, that would have been hilarious if that happened!"

What are your tricks, tiger? Influences? I love Spider Robinson and Douglas Adams, who if often laugh-out-loud funny, though he also gets pretty absurd. I play w/absurd too, though I think that's a little harder to pull off.

I really like the idea of parody/lampoon. I have a post-apocalyptic suburban story in the mental hopper right now (with extensive notes and one scene written, but no story arc just yet.) I like to take something normal (e.g., suburban life) and stick something really odd in there (apocalypse, 3/4 of the population is dead) and see how normal things remain (not very.) My first short story in fragments was about teenagers on the moon.

Posted by mfreivald (Member # 3413) on :

I've *thought* I was writing humor any number of times.

I'm still waiting for my mail order sense-of-humor to come in, but as soon as I receive it, I intend to do some humorous writing.

In my most recent story, "Does this Count?"...

http://www.hatrack.com/forums/writers/forum/Forum11/HTML/002528.html

...I started out writing it to be quite humorous, but the story developed into something more serious. It's now kind of a mix of humor and serious. (Still not sure I pulled it off well.)

I hope to find the "right" kind of story for humor, but I'm just starting to figure things out these days. (And I'm still waiting for that package.)

Douglas Adams proved there is a market for it in Sci-Fi. I haven't read anything trying to be funny that I particularly cared for in the fantasy genre, though.

ciao,
Mark

Posted by Spaceman (Member # 9240) on :

I write some humor, and even sold it on occasion. It is a tough sell because humor is a very personal thing. One person can think it's very funny while another person will think it's just dumb, eg., Mr. Bean. Somebody thinks it's funny, but it's not me.

Posted by Rommel Fenrir Wolf II (Member # 4199) on :

i write humer into all of my stories and books to be...

altho most are qutie off the wall ex... in one of my books 2 of the main charictors are piloting a crashing starship and the one at the stick turns to the other right befor they enter the atosmere and says "did i ever tell you i like pie." and the one who is controling the engens yells at him "ABOUT 300,000 TIMES."
the one who is controling the stick has ADD and EXTREAM MEMORY LOSS. he is baced off some of my good friends and myself.
Rommel Fenrir Wolf II

Posted by DeepDreamer (Member # 5337) on :

I've written a handful of intended-to-be-humorous articles, but dang, doing so is HARD. Well, doing so on purpose, anyway. One of them was something I just pulled out of my butt while trying to come up with something interesting for a 1,000 word article to write as an assignment for Long Ridge Writers Group. It literally went from first draft to polished-enough-to-send-out in an hour.

Then of course, my instructor didn't realize just how much of an accident it was. It was really a one-shot piece, but he thought I could write humor. And gullible me, I believed him.

Bah, humbug. I never did graduate from LRWG, and I haven't written anything intentionally humorous since. (Emails don't count.)

I think pure-humor stories work best when short, and I have a hard time writing short. Humor in the stories I write now are like Robert Norwall's. And some of my characters are more likely to make jokes than others. But writing funny stuff just doesn't come naturally to me. I have little notes in the margins stating (insert joke here?). Right here would be a great place for a punchline. But one isn't coming to me. *goes off in search of a good punchline*

Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :

The actor Edmund Kean's supposed last words: "Dying is easy...comedy is hard."