My best wishes to all of you who are bravely writing away on you NaNoWriMo projects. Hope it\u2019s going along swimmingly!<\/p>\n
For any of you in my neck of the woods, I\u2019m going to be part of a kids\u2019 book author panel and then a signing on the evening of Monday, December 8th, from 6:00 to 7:30 at Fox Lane Middle School, 632 South Bedford Road, which is in Bedford, New York. If you can come, I\u2019d love to meet you!<\/p>\n
Also, at the suggestion of Lydia S. last week on the blog, we\u2019ve added a new feature right to the right of these words: FOLLOW BY EMAIL, which will let you know about blog updates, if you\u2019d like. Strictly voluntary. Thank you, Lydia S.!<\/p>\n
On July 24, 2014, Kenzi Anne wrote, I’ve noticed that while I’m usually a very goofy, lighthearted person, my stories always end up being dark and fairly heavy. I know I need some humor and comedy in there, but it always sounds forced and unnatural. How do I lighten my stories but still keep them serious?<\/i><\/p>\n
Elisa suggested, Have there be a character for comic relief, like Razo in the Goose Girl<\/u> and Enna Burning<\/u>, both books are by Shannon Hale. (I LOVE[!!!!!!!!!!] Razo.)<\/i><\/p>\n
And Michelle Dyck weighed in with: I second what Elisa said. \ud83d\ude42 That, and a bit of sarcasm or even slapstick humor can help.As for humor sounding forced… it might help to show it to another set of eyes and ask for an opinion. And if you know someone witty, he or she could help you out too.<\/i><\/p>\n
These are great suggestions. Not only Shannon Hale includes humorous characters for comic relief; Shakespeare did it, too. In his tragedies, he gives minor characters entire funny scenes. If it\u2019s good enough for the bard…<\/p>\n
You might introduce a character, say Salli, who sees the bright side of everything. Your MC, Carole, takes a drubbing at the hands of a bully. Her nose and cheek are bruised an interesting shade of purple. A dance is coming up the next day, which will also be Carole\u2019s first date with Mark. Salli says, \u201cWear the blue dress. Blue and purple\u2013very pretty.\u201d<\/p>\n
The mood is further lightened if Carole smiles and says, \u201cMark will know I have good taste.\u201d<\/p>\n
Things get worse, since this is a story about bullying. Carole loses a tooth. She\u2019s weeping. Salli says, \u201cWow, the space is just the size for a straw. Handy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Again, it will help if Carole goes along. She says, \u201cYou think?” Only it comes out, You zink?<\/i> She adds, “Oh! I can\u2019t say tee aitch or even tee–\u201d though the words don’t come out that way.<\/p>\n
Salli, cheerful as ever, says, \u201cIt sounds like Transylvanian. A vampire would say that.\u201d<\/p>\n
The seriousness of the situation hasn\u2019t changed. The bully is still increasingly dangerous, but the reader enjoys what\u2019s going on more, and he likes these characters better and better. He doesn\u2019t want anything bad to happen to these endearing people.<\/p>\n
Salli\u2019s crazy optimism doesn\u2019t pop up unless something bad has happened. When the worst happens, whatever it is, Salli\u2019s consolation is so far-fetched and pathetic, it breaks the reader\u2019s heart even while he\u2019s aware of the humor.<\/p>\n
Mishaps, even tragedy, can have a humorous side, usually do in real life. For example, I was a plump child, and once, ice skating on a frozen lake, I fell through after two of my (thinner) friends had skated safely across the same spot. I\u2019d have died if my father hadn\u2019t pulled me out fast, but all I was thinking about was that I was fat and that my friends were more aware of it than ever. The contrast between the seriousness of the situation and the frivolity of my thinking is where the humor lies\u2013but only if I\u2019m aware that my worry is silly and the danger is real. Decades later I reconnected with Michael, one of the friends, and he remembered me falling through the ice. When I told him what I had been worrying about, his jaw dropped. He was a sweet boy, and that never occurred to him.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s the scene in Ella Enchanted <\/i>when the parrot Chock commands Ella to kiss him and then keeps flying away when she tries. It\u2019s funny but also powerful, because it highlights the crazy things the curse forces Ella to do\u2013and she’s perfectly aware of this.<\/p>\n
So how do we get these deep but humorous moments?<\/p>\n
Look for the contrast. Let\u2019s say our villain, the bully, has managed to push Carole into a lake (not frozen). She\u2019s soaked from the waist down and running for her life. What she\u2019s aware of as she runs–one of the things she\u2019s aware of–is that her skirt is clinging and transparent now that it\u2019s wet. She isn\u2019t sure which she hates more, being so afraid, or having her knock-knees revealed as well as the print on her panties: black bunnies leaping across a red background.<\/p>\n
This is serious humor, but I love humor that\u2019s silly, too, and I love word play. My Princess Tales books are full of this kind of humor. For example, in The Fairy\u2019s Return<\/i>, one of my MCs, Robin, loves to pun. They\u2019re groaners, but I enjoy them. Here are three examples:<\/p>\n
What’s the best food for a dwarf? Shortbread.
\nWhat’s a jester’s favorite food? Wry bread.
\nWhy do elves taste delicious? Because they’re brownies.<\/p>\n
And Robin\u2019s father is a poet. Here\u2019s one of his poems:<\/p>\n
Royalty and commoners must never mix.
\nDo not forget or you will be in a predicament.<\/p>\n
Also a groaner, but I had fun writing it.<\/p>\n
I also like writing subtle humor that doesn\u2019t make even me crack a smile, but that causes an interior nod of recognition, a little spark of pleasure. In a poem I wrote this week, I wrote about forgetting things when I went shopping. Then I wondered in the poem if I should list what I forgot, and I wrote, \u201cLists are good in poems but these aren\u2019t interesting, just soy milk, eggs, and almond butter.\u201d<\/p>\n
Do you get it? If not, doesn\u2019t matter. The pleasure is for me and anyone else who notices.<\/p>\n
Here are four prompts:<\/p>\n
\u2022 Write the story of Carole and Salli and the bully. His or her target is Carole, and Salli is the eternal optimist.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Write the story of Carole and Salli and the bully, only in this version the funny one is the bully, and this makes him even scarier.<\/p>\n
\u2022 In the version of \u201cThe Frog Prince\u201d that I know, the frog turns into a prince, not when the princess kisses him but when she throws him against a wall as hard as she can. This scene is begging for comedic treatment. Write it!<\/p>\n
\u2022 Carole is a punster. The dance date with Mark is handicapped for two reasons: Carole\u2019s face is bruised, and she keeps punning. Decide how Mark handles this and write the scene, including at least five puns.<\/p>\n
\u2022 I listen to a comedy-news quiz on the radio every week. One of the segments, called “Bluff the Listener,” presents the contestant with three goofy solutions to a problem, one of which actually happened. The topic might be increasing tourism or winning customer loyalty, but last week it was getting kids to eat their vegetables. Figure out your own wacky solution to this age-old problem, and write a scene in a family in which it plays out for good or ill.<\/p>\n
Have fun, and save what you write!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
My best wishes to all of you who are bravely writing away on you NaNoWriMo projects. Hope it\u2019s going along swimmingly! For any of you in my neck of the woods, I\u2019m going to be part of a kids\u2019 book author panel and then a signing on the evening of Monday, December 8th, from 6:00 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[21,22],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":293,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17\/revisions\/293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}