Humor starts with a Premise ~ you add surprise and exaggeration and keep
asking yourself how you can make it funnier.
Humor comes from the sense of reality, exaggerated and
distorted. Humor begins with what if . . . .
In my book Courting Cupid, (a Love & Laughter written
as Charlotte Maclay) a female apprentice Cupid accidentally shoots an arrow
into her own foot. Instead of her “target” falling in love with the intended
woman, he falls in love with her.
Humor keys into something we can all relate to ~ the heroine who
desperately wants the hero to notice her and makes a mess of things trying to
get his attention; the unease of being in an unfamiliar situation and making a
fool of yourself; the agony of having our children misbehave at the absolute
worst possible time.
There are 3 basic types of humor:
·
Character
·
Situational
·
Physical
In a humorous story that is character
driven, the protagonist has a strong comic perspective. This is the ‘dumb
blonde’ in Susan Elizabeth’s book who knows darn well she’s as smart as any of
the men, but she’s going to let them figure that out for themselves.
Please note: while the character is funny
to the reader, she is totally serious about her goals.
Situational
comedy relies on a bizarre circumstance, often the familiar ‘fish-out-of-water’
situation.
Physical comedy is pretty obvious
~ it’s the pie in the face, Pratt fall or the guy that walks around a banana
peel and drops down manhole.
Chances are good, however, you don’t want to
write a funny book. You simply want to add some humor.
Try setting up you story with Contrasting
Characters
·
The hero who never smiles vs. the
effervescent heroine
·
The playboy hero vs. the prim heroine
·
The tough guy vs. the naive heroine
·
The sexually experienced male vs. the
innocent heroine
Or let your Secondary Characters
carry the humor.
We don’t want to risk our lead characters
looking foolish by having them do really dumb things. To avoid this you can add
humor (and insight) via a secondary character. Siblings, best friends, grocery
store clerk, in-laws, parents, and ne’re-do-well relatives. Because I most
often write family stories, my favorite source of humor is children. They can
be so much fun....and thoroughly embarrass their parents.
Dialogue can create humor by the
use of
·
Rapid fire speech
·
Clever one liners
·
Unusual curses
·
Witty dialogue
Dialogue in contrast to thoughts
Often it’s what the characters are
thinking, not what they say, that adds humor. Here is where you can use deep
Point of View to reveal character and give your readers a laugh or a smile.
Julie Lessman identifies
some of the ways she brings humor to her stories.
·
Analogy/Metaphor/Simile
· Facial Features
· Sibling Rivalry
· Sarcasm (use care here not to make your character
too snarky)
If you’d like more details and examples
about writing humor, check out the Articles at my Website www.CharlotteCarter.com
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| Purchase Link |
Happy writing......Char
Home to Montana, Love Inspired, 3/2012
Montana Wrangler, Love Inspired, 7/2012
Dora here. Now it’s your turn.
Do you enjoy reading books that make you
laugh?
How do you inject humor into your writing?
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Charlotte Carter has authored more than 50 romance and cozy mysteries for various Harlequin lines, Dorchester and Guideposts Books. She is currently writing for the Harlequin Love Inspired romance line. Her books have won the National Readers’ Choice Award, the Orange Rose Contest and various awards from Romantic Times.
An active member of Orange County and Faith, Hope and Love chapters of Romance Writers of America, she is a frequent speaker for community groups and workshop presented for writers’ organizations.
Charlotte lives in Southern California with her husband of 50 years; they have two married daughters and five grandchildren. In her spare time, Charlotte performs standup comedy.
