Tips for Writing Humor

Later this week I'm going to be one of the speakers at a Short Mystery Fiction Society zoom meeting. The topic is writing humor. Humor is one of those things that can be hard to teach, especially because it's subjective. What causes one reader to break into a fit of laughter might cause another reader to sigh in exasperation. Humor is also intuitive--at least that is how it seems to me. If you aren't naturally funny, you're going to have a hard time writing something funny.

Nonetheless, this zoom is imminent, so I recently skimmed through a list of my published stories, thinking about the funny ones (at least the ones intended to be funny) and why I thought they were funny. In the end, I realized it all comes down to voice. Even if an author devises a hysterical setup, if the characters don't react in a humorous way, either by what is said or thought (the characters' voices) or by what is done (essentially, this is the author's voice at work), the humor likely will fall flat. 

To illustrate, I'm going to address the humor in some of my stories. This will spoil some of the stories, at least a little. Sorry about that to those folks who haven't already devoured everything I've had published. Though surely, dear reader, I'm not talking about you. (See, that was voice, used for humorous effect! Anyway...)

"Bug Appetit" - This was a story about a con artist who ended up at a Thanksgiving dinner made with insects, but he didn't know about the ingredients until mid-meal. The setup was amusing (at least to me), but one of the funniest parts of the story was the big reveal about the bugs, both the dialogue (especially that of Helen, a grandmother without a filter who was also hard of hearing) and the reaction thoughts of the main character. Helen also spoke in a folksy manner, turning what she said, which could have seemed sinister or mean, into something funny. Here's a key part, starting with the main character talking about the food, followed by the big reveal:

"This butternut soup is fantastic. I especially like the bacon bits."

As he lifted another spoonful into his mouth, Helen yelled, "Bacon bits my ass. That's worms you're eating!"

I think the rhythm of how Helen spoke, as well as her frankness and her word choice, is what made it funny.  

"A Tale of Two Sisters" - This story was set at a wedding at a resort. The main character was the anxious bride's sister. She was determined to ensure everything would go smoothly. This story was supposed to be funny, but I wasn't feeling funny when I wrote it. As a result, the reaction thoughts and the dialogue were falling flat. I finally realized the story needed a foil--a character the other characters, especially the main character, could feel antagonistic to and react to in a funny way. And that is how the two sisters' mother came to be. 

Funny thing, I thought I had written that the main character heard The Wicked Witch of the West music whenever her mother appeared, but I just searched through the story, and that detail wasn't in there. It must have just been in my head as I wrote, and it was enough to get me in a snarky, humorous mood. The moral of this story: sometimes, in order to get humor flowing from your fingers, you need to take steps to make you feel funny yourself.

"Biscuits, Carats, and Gravy" - This is another Thanksgiving story. It took place in the pristine home of an uptight woman. An heirloom ring went missing (it actually was stolen, hidden in the filled gravy boat), and the family members searched frantically for it, resulting in a food fight. What really made the food-fight scene work was the main character's horrified reaction to her dining room being destroyed as the food flew. It was fun to write. And that, I think, is a key element of writing humor. You should be amused as you write. If you aren't making yourself laugh, it seems highly unlikely you'll make anyone else laugh.

"Gone to Pot" - In this tale, Annabelle learned that her next-door neighbor Micki's cat, Chairman Meow, was rushed to the vet after the poor baby got a contact high from the outdoor pot smoking of the neighbors who lived on the other side of Micki's house. The setup of this story wasn't funny. Annabelle's reaction--what she said, what she thought, and what she did--is what made the story shine (in my humble opinion). 

Here is one of Annabelle's funny reaction thoughts. It opens with Micki telling Annabelle that she spoke with the pot smokers about what happened to Chairman Meow. Micki didn't get the empathetic response she'd been hoping for.

"Dean said it was my choice to own a cat, and if the smoke bothered him I should 'keep my damn windows closed.'"

I'd never heard such un-neighborly behavior in my life, and my hometown had a serial killer when I grew up. 

I've heard it said that all acting is reacting. I think reacting plays the same important role when writing humor.

You can find "Baby Love" in
 this this great anthology. 

"Baby Love" - In this story, Dan is a PI who's determined to solve his new case, while his wife, Hannah, keeps trying to lure him into bed so she can get pregnant. You'd thing Hannah's actions would impede the investigation, but every seductive move she makes gives Dan an idea of where to look for his next clue. I thought that basic setup was funny. Then I tried to pump up the humor through Dan's avoidance (dialogue and thoughts) of Hannah's come-ons as well as through her exasperated reactions. I also used details to add to the humor throughout the story (as I did in "Gone to Pot" with things like naming the cat Chairman Meow). For instance, I thought it was amusing when Dan found Hannah wearing an apron--only an apron--that said on the front "Is it hot in here or is it just me?" 

All of this funny stuff (Dan's thoughts, Hannah's frustrated responses to being put off, and the amusing details in the story) ultimately boils down to voice--the characters' voices, as well as mine, which is shown in my wording choices, amongst other things. So if you want to make your characters funny, think about the way someone you find funny talks and try to bring that quality to your characters.

I hope you've found these tips helpful. If you'd like to read any of the stories I talked about above, they're all listed on my website with the original place of publication. Just click here. If you'd like to read "Baby Love," you can find it here on my website for a limited time. (If you would prefer to read a PDF, click here, then scroll down to the titles of the five short stories nominated this year for the Agatha Award. They all link to PDFs.) And if you're a member of the Short Mystery Fiction Society, I hope to see you at the watercooler zoom on Thursday evening, where John Floyd, Robert Lopresti, Josh Pachter, and I will regale you with our humor tips--though I think I've covered all of mine here. Uh oh...