Dare To Be Funny

When I was quite young, I heard an old joke that became one of my favorites. It goes like this:

A woman and her young son are strolling along the beach when a huge wave comes along and pulls the boy out to sea. A man standing nearby, who witnesses the event, springs into action. He dives into the ocean, swims against the current, and somehow is able to reach the child. He brings the child back safely, and presents him to his mother on the beach. The mother looks at her son and says to the man: “He had a hat.”

It’s probably a corny joke, but I’m smiling right now. What makes the joke work so well for me is the audacity of the mother. The man just saved her child, and she is not satisfied.

Many writers who don’t write humor on a regular basis have a fear of writing it. They feel they will either come off as corny, or not funny. Truth is, sometimes we’re not funny. Sometimes we are corny. But to successfully add humor to your work, you need to be like the mother in the joke, and have the audacity to dare to be funny.

This is your greatest challenge in writing humor. Have you ever written something in a manuscript, chuckled to yourself and then cut it, because you thought no one else would think it’s funny? Just as you have to believe in your prose, must also believe in your sense of humor. Every one of us has one.

When I was writing Never Slow Dance With A Zombie, I had my sense of humor turned way up. It was my first YA and I wanted to take advantage of what I thought was one of my greatest assets –my humor. Being a sitcom writer, I realized that some things I thought were funny were going to fall flat. However, some things I thought were cute were going to get big laughs. That’s exactly what happened. In readings, passages I thought were funny didn’t get so much as a chuckle, while other things I didn’t think were funny at all, got laughs. I knew I had achieved my goal when one reviewer called my little book “a laugh out loud debut novel.”

When a comedian goes on stage he has no idea from night-to-night what material is going to get a laugh. Some nights, things that have been sure-fire funny fall flat. That’s how it is with humor. It doesn’t work the same for every reader. But the beauty of injecting humor into your work is it adds balance. It adds color and depth, and can illuminate the most dramatic of moments. And it sets you apart from writers who are afraid to attempt it. So, if you want to step up your game as a writer, you must make the conscious effort to dare to add humor.

Next week: The Key To Unleashing Your Humor—Thinking Crooked

Adding Humor To Your Writing

This is the first in a weekly series of posts on adding humor to your writing.

Humor Me

When I was a boy growing up in the Bronx I loved making my older brother laugh. I’d do anything: tell bad jokes, drizzle milk out of my nose, armpit farts, butt farts. I was a real laugh riot. However, as I got older I grew more serious… and at some point in time the farting stopped being funny.

I’d never thought of myself as a funny person. My early writing was dramatic, almost melodramatic. As an undergrad I’d read Hubert Selby Jr.’s Last Exit To Brooklyn, an epithet-filled tale of the horrors of living in 1950s Brooklyn. I decided these were the kinds of stories I wanted to tell. The difference is, I wanted to tell my stories about growing up in the hard-scrabble streets of the South Bronx.

I set out writing humorless tales about the underbelly of society. I gave one of my gut-wrenching tales to my brother, and as he read it he started to laugh. ”Hey, what’s so funny?” I demanded. “This,” he said pointing to the pages in his hand. I loved making my brother laugh. However, I did not like making him laugh when I wasn’t trying. I was insulted.

Fortunately for me, later in life I would learn why my story was so funny to him. It happened at a production of The Great White Hope. I had just moved to Los Angeles to attend graduate school. The Great White Hope is a play written by Howard Sackler about the life of Jack Johnson.

The night I attended the play, the actor playing Jack Johnson was in the midst of performing a gut-wrenching soliloquy, when the audience started to laugh. I was surprised. I didn’t hear anything funny, yet the laughter continued. In fact, it grew. Embarrassing. There was a famous director seated a few seats away from me. I heard him say “The audience needs a release.” I realized instantly what he was talking about. The audience was being bludgeoned by the weight of the material, and the actor’s melodramatic performance. They needed some relief from the drama. When relief wasn’t provided for them, they created their own.

It was in that moment in a darkened theater in the early 1980s I recognized the power of humor. I became a student of it. Since then I have gone on to work for one of America’s greatest living humorists, Bill Cosby. I wrote and produced The Cosby Show. I learned a lot from Mr. Cosby. I will share some of my lessons with you here. In the early 90s I had the pleasure of originating the humor course at USC’s graduate school of professional writing, also known as the prestigious MPW program.

Humor has served me well. My first YA novel, Never Slow Dance With A Zombie, was a laugh-out-loud satire about high school life. In that first novel I wanted to prove to myself that I could be funny in prose as well as in a script. In my new novel, Boyfriend From Hell, there’s a good dose of humor, but it’s blended much better with action and drama. This time I am not trying to prove anything to myself. I am just trying to tell a good story.

Over the next few weeks I will share some of my lessons with you on how and when to add humor to your writing. If you think you are not funny, I will show how to find your funny bone. If you’re interested in learning more about adding humor to your writing, check back. Peace.

Next week: Dare to Be Funny

Sal Conte

I want to introduce everyone who reads the blog to a new author. He is one of my favorite people. He is the author of the graphic horror novels, Child's Play and The Power... And he is me. You heard me right, I am 80s splatterpunk author, Sal Conte.

A little back story.

in 1980 when I was a student at USC, my greatest goal was to be published. I started my writing career by selling stories to romance and confession magazines. True Romance and True Confessions among others. How I chose confessions was, I wanted to be published, but I needed to get paid for writing fiction if I was going to give up my job and become a full time fiction writer. I'd read in a Writer's Digest article that the true stories in those magazines were indeed, fiction. I surmised that there were eight magazines publishing six to seven stories each a month. Most literary magazines publish one story a month, but with fifty or more opportunities available to be published in this genre, I figured my chances of getting published were greater.

I was right. I sold the second story I submitted, and soon became a regular contributor. The pay was a paltry $40-$150 for a story. I wrote two stories a week with the goal of earning $400 a month. Not every story sold.

Most of my reading at the time was horror--big time. Stephen King and Peter Straub were my faves. I read that King had started out by publishing horror short fiction in magazines aimed at men. So, emulating King, I started writing horror shorts. Again, I sold my second story. These paid far better, $350-$1000 per story.

I was happy. I was making more than $400 a month writing fiction, paying my way through college. I was a success. A professor of mine at USC (Shelly Lowenkopf) didn't think so. I had written the opening of a horror novel in his class, and he asked me what I was doing with the book. "Nothing," I responded. "I make four bills a month writing short fiction." I know, I had no vision.

He thought the book was terrific, and at his prompting I finished it. This was my first novel, Child's Play (not the Chuckie movies, which I love and wished I'd written, but no)

I decided to write under a pseudonym. Why I chose Sal Conte is a story for another post. You now know more about me than I thought you'd ever know. But here comes the big news. The books were published by Dorchester, under their Leisure Imprint. Last Friday I read about authors boycotting Dorchester because of what they were doing with their digital rights. "Wait a minute," I thought. "Sal's books (yes, I call him Sal, as if he's another guy) have digital rights that I own.

So here's my announcement. I am going to republish Child's Play and The Power as digital books available on the kindle and Nook for 99c. I am even starting work on a new Sal Conte novella. The Sal Conte books will come out after Boyfriend From Hell (which is coming in September, friends), in October or November.

I am not asking any of you to purchase them. I am sure I will get a few sales from 80s horror aficionados. I just thought it was high time you heard a bit more about my literary roots. So, there you have it.

Peace.

It's Over!

I haven't posted since March Madness began. I posted twenty minutes before the start of the madness, and I am posting now, twenty minutes after. My friends cannot believe what a nut I am for the NCAA basketball tournament. I can't explain it. I am not this way about anything else. But once the tourney starts, it becomes my main focus. While I haven't been posting, I have been writing. Two weeks ago I received a galley copy of Boyfriend From Hell. I did quite a few edits, and I am turning it in tomorrow. This is good news for those of you who won ARCs. They should be available in the next month. I also turned in the first third of the Boyfriend from Hell sequel last week. See? I told you I was writing. It's not all b-ball for me, I have also been working. That's it for tonight. I will be posting again tomorrow with an announcement. Until then... Peace.

Twenty Minutes

Yes. In twenty minutes I will disappear from the face of the earth into March Madness oblivion. Yesterday I completed what I hope is the final edit on Boyfriend From Hell (Chris, are ya listening?) I also wrote ten pages on the sequel, so I won't feel guilty watching basketball for the next four days. I also filled out my bracket. This year I chose Pittsburgh to win it all, although coming from New York, St. John's is my sentimental favorite.

For those of you who care about YA paranormal this seems like some silly guy activity. It is. And I love it. See you next week.

GuestPost: Tatiana El Khouri

Today I am pleased to announce that my first guest post telling her Boyfriend From Hell story is my good friend Tatiana. Tatiana is not just my friend, she's also my web designer, a talented floral arranger and an artist who painted the cover art for my novella, I Want You Back! That's right, the cover for I Want You Back! is an oil painting. She's obviously an awesome person, and I am happy to have her as a friend. For more on what she's been up to go here: Creative Force Group.

I call Tatiana's dating story, Cyber Spy. Here's Tatiana:

Tati: I was fresh out of college and anxious to delve into the business world as an entrepreneur. I soon discovered that holding down a job and pursuing my own art business left me with little time to date. One day I was talking to a friend and fellow business owner who had a burgeoning empire and a pretty good dating life. "How do you do it?" I asked. "How do you pursue your goals and still find the time to meet guys?"

Her answer was: "Online dating."

The hopeless romantic in me tried clinging to the notion that the man of my dreams would come riding into my life on a white horse. No way did I see him emailing into my life over the internet. Yet, after a little convincing, I found myself setting up my online profile. I have to admit, I was actually surprised at the caliber of guys and the ease of the process.

One day I got a message from a user who seemed great on paper. Amazing education and a great job. Shortly afterward we started talking on the phone. To my surprise, the chemistry was great. We found ourselves finishing each others sentences. At night I would go to sleep exhausted from hours of great conversations that ranged from random trivia, to my favorite movies, all the way to politics. I was quite impressed! We even found out we had some of the same friends. There was an uncanny sense of comfort.

I was on cloud nine. Until he slipped.

We were talking late one night and he asked if I was going to a specific event. Well, I was. But how did he know? I never mentioned it to him. Nor had I ever mentioned that group of friends. For the first time, I got a creepy chill. I couldn't figure out how he knew about the event. I questioned it a little, and then I let it slide.

However, the more I thought about, the more it bothered me. So what did I do? The only thing a girl could do... I Confronted him!

After much stalling he finally admitted to doing a background check on me. He said he was worried I wasn’t who I said I was. Bull! He did a background so that he could be perfect for me. No wonder he was finishing all my sentences. He had collected a dossier on me. The chemistry was fixed. I felt so duped!

Needless to say, I stopped returning his calls and emails. I ran into him a few years later at a party. He looked familiar but I couldn’t place him, until he asked how my art and my house was. I walked straight away from him to my girlfriend that recommended online dating in first place, and sarcastically thanked her for giving me a great story to tell.

Thanks Tatiana for sharing your story. If any of you reading this would like to be a guest and share your dating horror story with me, leave your contact info in the comments. All guests will receive a beautiful I Survived A Boyfriend From Hell t-shirt just for participating.

Peace.

We Have A Winner!

See that heart? That's the love I am feeling for all you guys. Thank you so much for participating in my cover contest. I had over 100 responses across four blogs. The responses varied from those of you who loved certain covers, to those who hated all of them. Everyone of your responses is important to me, and was seriously considered. One cover, however, had an overwhelmingly positive response. That response was reflected across all four blogs. So I am now announcing that the cover of my new novel, Boyfriend From Hell, will be this one:

This cover design was not my first choice, mainly because it's a cartoon cover, and I like photographs. But after reading your responses I have to agree that it will stand out in a crowd. I hope those of you who didn't choose this cover will still support the book. It's a good, fun, paranormal read.

The two winners of the prizes for this contest are: Lulilut (who I believe has also won at least one of my Hollyweird Tuesday Trivia Challenges), and Pamela Kaye. You each win your choice of a Boyfriend From Hell ARC, or the lovely I Survived A Boyfriend From Hell t-shirt. Please send your prize preference and mailing address to me at info@evanlowe.com. The ARCs are not available yet, we are finishing up the final edit, so you will have to wait about a month or so. The t-shirts are available now.

Starting some time soon I will be having a series of guest posts from my friends and followers telling brief, humorous bad boyfriend experience stories. I have four guests lined up so far. If any of you would like to guest here and share your boyfriend experience please let me know in the comments. Leave your email, and I will tell you what you need to do. You don't have to limit it to boyfriends per se. It can be a bad date, a bad blind date, an idiot who annoyed you at a club, anything bad about a guy, but with a humorous spin. All guests whose stories I choose will receive the I Survived A Boyfriend From Hell tee just for participating.

Of course, all of these fun posts and contests are leading up to the publication of Boyfriend From Hell in September. Please, please, support the book.

I'd also like to send a special shout-out to the bloggers who helped out with the contest. Each of you will receive a t-shirt as a token of my appreciation. The bloggers are:

Velvet at VVB Reads

Dottie at Tink's Place

and Titania86 at Fishmuffins of Doom

Thanks again everyone, and stay tuned.

Peace