You've got to laugh - but what if they don't?

We get the odd comic short story submitted to the Global Short Story Competition so I thought some musings on the subject would be useful.

Writing humour is very tough: people can listen to your short story without a sound and at the end they can say ‘that was terrific’ - with humour, if they ‘aint laughing or smiling at all you have failed!

First ask yourself, what makes people laugh, which writers and why? What makes you laugh? What would make your reader laugh?

There is also an argument that if you are not a humorous person, you cannot write good humour. May be true, may not.

Here’s some golden rules.

* Humorous characters needs just as much characterisation as others. Look at your character, work out where the humour lies. Do you have a character who is egotistical, vain, clumsy, stupid? Whatever the strong character trait is, play on it.

* Observe, write down funny things, quips, things people say etc

* Develop humour within situations - maybe take a sideways glance at life and situations

* Dialogue is crucial - keep it sharp

* Whatever you do, a light touch usually needed - sledgehammers not required. If a joke needs explaining, it has not worked

* Use pace - move on from gag to gag

* Try out your jokes - if you laugh, others may not. I always reckon if I laughed first time, it was good.
* Be brutal, if a gag does not work - or is in the wrong story - ditch it!
John Dean