Humour is something everyone adores to read, whether you are a child or an old person. However, to interject humour into your writing, takes skill and practice. So, read on to find out how to make your writing humorous and to get those laughs out!
1. Build a Skeleton
Firstly, just like any writer, you will need a mental outline of your piece of writing. Check out whether it has any space for comedy, or silly instances to make the story livelier. If it has scope for that, then you’re in luck!
2. Watch the World
Secondly, take hints from external sources. So, what are these external sources?
Of course, it could include books, films, serials, dialogues or mannerisms that are repeatedly done by famous characters or simple people who are a part of your daily life. Use these examples and change them a bit so as to suit the settings of your writing.
Another tip would be to watch people in various public places. Go and sit in parks, or libraries or any small café and watch for funny peculiar characters. Picture them in your story and check out whether they fit into your humour scenes. These will be different from the ones you find in books or films and can help you provide a funny identity for the characters in your book.
3. Right Place to fit in Humour
Thirdly, don’t overdo the humour part. Too much may spoil the atmosphere in the story (it depends on the type of story you’re writing). Humour can be infused in fiction or you can write about a completely funny person and his activities. In such cases, try including subtle metaphors that prompt the reader to laugh away even before realizing it.
One thing that has been noticed is that, you could include a few jokes or humour based incidents into academic subjects, religious and sexually oriented subjects. These will tend to ease down the tension of the writing and also increase the inquisitiveness to read on further. Moreover, the readers will be able to recall whatever small advices, theories, studies and real life experiences are mentioned in your piece of writing.
A nice place to interject humour is probably when the topic gets too serious. It certainly lightens the complexity of the particular subject. Try to include cliché’ humour dialogues to take the reader by surprise and burst into laughter. When the humour part comes suddenly in the right place, it will be welcomed easily.
For example, if you are about to write about the reasoning behind myths and traditional practices and also allow people to think about the sense (if any) behind olden thinking, choose a similar example like this one:
One day, a lady was teaching her young daughter to prepare a big chunk of pork and bake it for dinner. After cleaning and putting all the required spices, she cut off the four edges of the meat. The girl asked, “Why?”
So, her mother replied, “Well, that is the traditional way of cooking this special bake”. The daughter was not happy with this answer and called up her grandmother to know the truth.
Grandmother replied, “Oh, there is no special way to it. I never had a large baking tray, so I used to cut off the sides of the chunk of meat”.
Did it bring a smile on your face?
Then continue with your reasoning. When timely and sensible humour is infused into your writing, the reader will absorb what you say without much denial and more ready acceptance.
4. Try it out on others
Last piece of advice, is before writing out humour, experiment it with your friends or neighbours or family members. If it clicks, then you have got the ‘OK’ signal to write or else, change it to something more humorous.
Image credit: Raymond Bryson on flickr and reproduced under Creative Commons 2.0[author] [author_image timthumb=’on’]https://writingtipsoasis.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Teena.jpg[/author_image] [author_info]Teena Abraham is an enthusiastic blogger and professional article writer who loves to write and share vital knowledge on any su+bject under the sky. Identifying her passion for blogging and freelancing, presently she focuses on writing eBooks, writing tips and advice on a variety of topics. Creative, multidisciplinary, strives to perfection and an eye for details is how her loved ones would describe Teena. An optimistic and dedicated person who does her best to make sure that her research will make a substantial difference for someone else in this world.[/author_info] [/author]
[…] books. • Do use great visuals, pictures and photos in your book, if possible. • Do use humor, magic, fantasy, action and adventure in your book (any or all of them!). • Don’t have parents […]