Category Archives: Books

Recovering from Poorly Received Material

By on December 30th, 2010

I like to think I create good comedy on a consistent basis. But sometimes I write a stinker, something so dreadful that I cringe whenever I think about it. One example is an article I wrote for another website where I criticized photos in a ranting, raving style. Commentors hated it. It’s feedback I won’t forget any time soon. Confronting the impact of your work is something all cretive minds have to deal with. This is especially true in comedy. A badly framed joke gets you blank expressions if you’re lucky…or gets you cussed out nine ways to Sunday. Standup …

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Make Your Writing Funny – The Writing Process

By on December 16th, 2010

It’s been a most triumphant few months doing this column. Over that time, I’ve covered the basics of comedy writing, talked about ways to integrate humor into forms of writing most freelancer writers are wont to do…I’ve even covered comedy inspirations from time to time. This time I’d like to give you an insight into how I write all the funny bits I do. Just like you, I had to develop the skills and my own style of writing over time, so don’t fret if you don’t have it down just yet. It’s all a matter of practice. 1. I …

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Make Your Writing Funny – Using (And Not Abusing) Puns

By on December 7th, 2010

Now, it’s often said that puns are the lowest form of comedy. And when you have a friend who is constantly making terrible puns to you like I do, it’s easy to agree. And when you come across forum threads and videos of countless David Caruso one-liners, the case for the pun declines quickly. But a clever pun, used sparingly, can be an awesome joke in its own right. The trick is to slip one in when the reader least expects it. Of course, you need a good pun, too. Most of the puns you’ve heard of switch words with …

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Make Your Writing Funny: 4 Tricks To Successfully Write Funny Anecdotes

By on November 11th, 2010

This week, the A-List Blogging Bootcamp began their six-week camp on writing like an A-List Blogger. The first week is free, and it details how to use personal stories to enhance your blog and make your posts more interesting. But sometimes retelling personal stories can be tricky. Have you ever been involved in a scenario that was so hilarious that you had to tell everyone? And then when you retold it, nobody laughed? And your story ended “you had to have been there”? I know I have. Because an anecdote is so personal, the funny part you experienced is lost …

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Make Your Writing Funny: Exaggerating Details

By on November 4th, 2010

One of the easiest and funnest ways to joke about something is to exaggerate a detail about it. You’ve been subjected to a “yo momma” joke before, I bet. Maybe fired off a few yourself? We’re basically going to be writing those, except a bit more…refined. And you DON’T have to pick on anyone’s weight if you want to. Fortunately, walking you through this week’s topic will be easier than expected. My sister’s getting married soon, and her fiance is, ah…vertically challenged. So excuse me while I have a little fun at someone else’s expense for the sake of education …

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Make Your Writing Funny: How to Develop Improv Skills by Yourself

By on October 28th, 2010

The best kind of jokes are the ones that pop fully formed into your head. Somehow your mind makes that instant connection, that instant relationship between two ideas, and forms a zinger that totally kills. The only problem is that this doesn’t happen often, at least not enough to make it your only comedy writing technique. Still, if you develop the skill of improvisational comedy, it helps immensely when coming up with funny lines. Most articles mention that the best way to hone improv comedy is to find an improv group and work with them. But, as much as I …

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Make Your Writing Funny: Writing Humorous Character Reactions

By on October 14th, 2010

In the last article, we talked about creating humorous characters for fiction. Now that we’ve done that, let’s toss them into the pit and actually get ‘em to do funny stuff. Remember that a humorous character is just a normal character that has exaggerated traits or expresses his personality in an exaggerated way. And the reactions DON’T have to be overblown – even very subtle, reserved characters can react in such an unexpected way that it makes you laugh. Because of that, writing a funny story isn’t much different from writing a normal one. All of the action is still …

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NaNoWriMo: The Quasi-Okay Prep Phase

By on October 13th, 2010

Last year, I did NaNoWriMo for the first time and failed miserably. Not only did I fail to produce the best novel ever known to mankind, but I actually failed to even reach 15,000 words. My little project, as I now refer to the failure that is my first novel ever attempted, is completely dead. Not only does it sit on my hard drive as a testament to my inability to plan, but it sort of taunts me in its mediocrity and horridness. “Hey Clint,” it says, sometimes, when I drink. “Remember when you sat up all night developing this …

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Make Your Writing Funny: Creating Humorous Fictional Characters

By on October 12th, 2010

Sprinkling some gags into an article is one thing, but add humor to a funny fictional story is a whole new bucket of fish. There are definitely jokes in humorous fiction, but since you’re also trying to create atmosphere, normal one-liners often don’t slide very well into a story. If a joke doesn’t feel like a natural puzzle piece in the whole equation, it’s easy for readers to slap you with the “amateur” label. If one-liners must be subtle to be effective, jokes in humorous fiction need to accomplish this twice as much. The best way to reach that ideal …

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NaNoWriMo: Let the Pain Begin

By on October 6th, 2010

In about a month, I am going to be a total and utter wreck. You see, last year, I participated in National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo for short. I also participated in National Nacho Book Boom, or NaNaBooBoo for short last year, but that one made no sense as I was plastered with tortilla chips, ink, and explosive powder by the end of that month. I’m still unclear as to what you do for it. Anyway, in roughly one month, perfectly normal and sane writers are going to try to slam out roughly a billion words towards a novel …

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