Category Archives: Web Writing

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 …

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 …