In this interview, Stewart discusses how a silly joke turned into his new humor book, Lessons From Cats For Surviving Fascism, his advice for other writers, and more.

Name: Stewart “Brittlestar” Reynolds
Book title: Lessons From Cats For Surviving Fascism
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing / Hachette
Release date: June 24, 2025
Genre/category: Cats and Fascism
Previous titles: Welcome To The Stupidocalypse: Survival Tips For The Dumbageddon
Elevator pitch: Lessons From Cats for Surviving Fascism is a darkly funny guide to resisting authoritarianism taught by nature’s fuzzy little resistance machines who invented passive resistance, boundary-setting, and staring unblinkingly at danger. With feline wisdom and dry wit, it offers survival strategies for the Stupid Age, one hiss and hairball at a time.

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What prompted you to write this book?

A writing exercise at first. I thought about how cats were jerks and how certain aspects of being a jerk are just the sort of thing we need to combat creeping authoritarianism.

How long did it take to go from idea to publication? And did the idea change during the process?

The whole process was a matter of weeks. It started as a silly joke but then evolved into a more serious discussion on what is happening globally (read: mainly the U.S.).

Were there any surprises or learning moments in the publishing process for this title?

Cats are selfish dicks but sometimes it’s useful to be a selfish dick.

Were there any surprises in the writing process for this book?

I refer to this book as a silly book for smart people and a smart book for silly people. Cat books are generally not that serious but this book, with only slight hyperbole, may help save democracy.

What do you hope readers will get out of your book?

I hope that readers get form the book that it’s best to think before deciding to comply … and that naps are resistance.

If you could share one piece of advice with other writers, what would it be?

Just write! Let your mind wonder. Get what bring you joy in your head to leak out on to the page.

The post Stewart “Brittlestar” Reynolds: Let Your Mind Wonder appeared first on Writer's Digest.

(5 Tips for Writing a Young Adult Romance To Make Your Readers Swoon)

Maybe you’re on a witchy kick after watching “A Discovery of Witches” and need to channel all your feelings. Maybe you recently watched Star Wars and thought the space magic needed to happen here on Earth and the heroine needed to hook up with the bad guy (just me?).

Whatever the reason, you need to weave magic and romance together. Here are my suggestions for how to make your magical rom-com the best it can be.

1. Magic wands or crystal balls? Or neither?

Before you start writing, stop and think about what kind of magic system you’re going to have. How does the magic in your world work? Do characters channel through magical devices like brooms and magic wands, or is it all done with a wave of the hand? How does one learn magic or are they born with the ability? Try to think through how your magic system is going to work, and what it’s based off.

I knew when I started writing the Hex series that I wanted to base my characters’ magic off of Roman witchcraft. I’d read an article online about curse tablets found in ancient Roman wells in Britain and read some fascinating books about how Roman witchcraft worked. I wanted to play with those aspects, so I had to stop and think about how Roman witchcraft would have carried forward into the modern day, and how people would be taught that magic, and how the gods responded.

2. Are you using an established system? Great, now are you going to break it or stick to the rules?

The fun thing about research is that it can provide answers and fun ideas for your story. If you decide you want to stick to an established magic system, there are plenty to choose from. There’s Roman witchcraft, Norse rune magic, Wicca, and even more obscure magic rituals that can be found with a little bit of research.

That being said, some writers find that too much information can be a cage instead of an idea mine. This is fiction, which means it exists only in your head. It’s all right to twist and warp things to suit your purposes. When writing Go Hex Yourself, I researched spells and spell components that the Romans used to give my magic system authenticity, but I also crafted my own spells and additional components to add a bit of richness to the story.

Don’t be afraid to break the rules in order to provide a richer experience. Picasso was classically trained as a painter before he decided to start breaking the rules of perspective and anatomy in his art, all because he wanted to tell a richer story.

3. Magic corner stores? Or magic speakeasies?

Now that we’re thinking about magic systems, let’s consider just how readily available our magic is. Does everyone know about it? Can you get a love potion at the corner bodega as you pick up your favorite soda? Or is magic forbidden and sold furtively on the corner like party drugs? Or do average people even know about magic at all?

You want to consider all the possibilities when crafting your rom-com, because they can all lead to vastly different scenarios. Is there speed dating for wizards? Are you unemployable if you haven’t been apprenticed to a wizard in the past? Or is it a dirty little secret for your hero and heroine, like that time there was just one bed in the hotel room?

4. Here’s looking at you (through a scrying mirror), kid.

Now that we’ve got an idea of how our magic works, how are our main characters involved in magic? Just like if you take the romance out of a romance novel, it’s not a romance—if our characters aren’t directly involved with magic to some degree, it’s not a magical romance.

You need to make magic intrinsic to the storyline. The character doesn’t have to have magic, of course, but they have to be involved in a magic situation in some way. If the characters are the body of our romance, our magic system should be the heart. Or spleen. Or something less gross but equally vital. Whatever.

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5. “You have bewitched me, body and soul.”—Mr. Darcy

Every good romance novel needs a reason as to why these two can’t be together. If there was no good reason, you’d have a romance pamphlet, not a novel. Think long and hard about how to make the magic vital for the reason as to why they can’t be together.

In Go Hex Yourself, my main characters are apprentice and warlock, and neither one is supposed to be casting magic. If they’re found out, bad things happen. If they fall in love, they can no longer cast (due to various plot reasons).

There’s a lot of things keeping them apart, but they still end up together. Think about how you can weave your magic into their character conflicts.

6) Oops! The magic did it again.

Now we come to the comedy part of our magic rom-com. We can mine our magic for this, too! After all, magic is powerful stuff. Any time you’re dealing with power, there are ways for it to backfire. Think about what happens if our main characters cast a spell wrong, or on the wrong person. How is this fixed? How hilarious is it? A lot of good comedy is situational comedy—putting the characters into a ridiculous scenario and watching them work/argue/scream their way out of it. Use your magic system for this!

In Roman magic, there’s a magic system called augury where you interpret the future based on the patterns of birds (right?!). Or there’s haruspicy, where you cut open an animal and read their entrails. Both sound bizarre (and the latter slightly alarming).

Now put a soccer mom in that situation, or a beauty queen. Chaos, right? And probably pretty funny. Think of the extremes of your magic, and how you can make it backfire. Maybe the heroine gives that handsome guy a love potion … and it gives him gas through their date. Or he ends up with food poisoning. Or maybe it accidentally kills him because of a wheat allergy. Think about how out of control you can make it, and mine it for laughs.

Good luck out there!

Click to continue.

The post 6 Tips for Writing a Magical Rom-Com appeared first on Writer's Digest.

You’ve probably had enough time in the past seven months to contemplate which parts of our lives are actually really weird and if it quite necessary to continue doing them every day. Why did we drive to the office when we can do our jobs at home? What is the point of putting on outside clothes anymore?

The humor writer Mia Mercado is ahead of her time. She began questioning things that are quite strange but society accepts as normal before the rest of the world shifted—the suburban nonsense of Bath and Body Works, child beauty pageants, Hollywood standards on how women age, etc.—for her collection of essays and satirical pieces Weird But Normal (May 2020, HarperCollins). Mercado’s work also touches on how uncomfortable things most people think are weird are actually very human and normal, such as her personal essays that recount hiding her soiled underwear in a wood pile and once believing that sex involved pressing index fingers together.

Before releasing her debut book into the world, Mercado’s work had been published in The New Yorker’s Shouts and Murmurs, McSweeney’s, New York Magazine’s The Cut, The New York Times, and more. She lives in Kansas City.

In a phone interview with WD, Mercado talked about putting together the proposal for this weird, colorful, gem of a book with literary agent Monica Odom; learning how to write while working for Hallmark and leaving the comfort of a full-time position for freelance writing; and where she finds her writing ideas.

Can you tell me a little bit about what your book proposal process was like?

I signed with a literary agent, Monica Odom, in March of 2018. I had an idea when I first started talking to her that was pretty loose. I knew I wanted to write a collection of funny essays that were both personal essays and some conceptual/humorous/satirical pieces. She helped me shape that into something that made sense and wasn’t just a bunch of things that I think are funny and now they’re in a book. She has a good sense of what publishers are looking for and what is oversaturated.

I knew a thing that was going to be important to me was feeling like I could talk about my experience as someone who is biracial as a female in the Midwest. I wanted to make sure I could talk about all those things at length and not feel like I had to self-censor or ignore them entirely. Some of my initial ideas were like very heavy like, “This is going to be a book about gender and race and that’s it.” And she was like, “That’s great. But I don’t want you to limit yourself.” You can talk about those things under a bigger umbrella, which was a helpful way to think about it. What the book shaped up to be is pretty similar to what the proposal was. This is my first book and I had no idea what a book proposal was.

I understand having to sell the thing before you make the thing, which is always strange where you have to prove that you can write by writing a bunch of stuff that isn’t the thing that you’re writing. So I had this proposal that was like, “Here’s who I am, here’s what I’ve done. Here’s the stuff that I want to write. Here’s the stuff that I have written that’s similar to that. And also here’s a couple of sample chapters, some of which were pieces that had already been published, places that I thought fit into this theme of things about ourselves that we think are strange that are normal, and things about culture that we take as normal that are actually strange, if you take a second look at them.” That idea was really shaped in partnership with Monica Odom.

We shopped it around to a couple of publishers and ended up going with HarperOne. The editor I worked with there, Hilary Swanson, really understood what I wanted to talk about holistically. I think she said she read a line about knowing that a partner isn’t right for you if they have a particular affinity for Dane Cook or some random lines in the book, and I was like, “Yes, this is the one she is going to be my editor wife.” I got lucky and also had good people surrounding me to help me find other people who understood the thing that I wanted to write. We were able to shape it into this thing other people would understand and that makes sense in a book format.

I sold the book to HarperOne in fall of 2018 started writing it in January of 2019 spent most of 2019 writing the book and turned in the final draft in August of 2019. So it’s been a minute since I’ve written the book and like anything else I’ve ever written, I keep having moments of, “What if everything that I wrote makes no sense and isn’t funny, and it’s just garbage from my brain I thought was funny by myself in a coffee shop that no one else is going to get?” It’s very reassuring to know that even though there’s a lot of things that are changing or a lot of things we are talking about right now that we were definitely not talking about as loudly when I was writing the book. I’m glad there are parts of the book that still feel relevant, even though this is an idea that I had years ago.

How long have you been writing pieces toward this book?

I have been freelance writing for five years. Like anybody who got an English degree, I always thought in the back of my brain it would be cool to write a book. But that also sounds like someone being like, “It’d be cool to fly. It’d be cool to go to the moon.” I thought it was just a pipe dream. As I was writing one-off humor pieces for different outlets, I got a better sense of the kind of stuff that I wanted to write and also realized I love doing conceptual humor pieces where I, as the writer, like writing from other people’s points of view, but the stuff that resonates with me the most is personal essays.

There are four or five pieces in the book that had been previously published in places like McSweeney’s or The New Yorker. There’s one piece that was published on The Belladonna, which is one of the first places that I had a piece published. I had these pieces that were not meant to live together, but as I started thinking more seriously about what’s this book is going to be, I was able to pick from those satirical pieces and I had nuggets of ideas from different things that I’d written that were more personal. Definitely nothing that was completely formed.

There are a couple of stories in the book that I’ve written about before, but never at the length I did in this book. And also not with as much thought behind it. It was more just like, “I remember the story and I want to write it down so I don’t forget it. I want to make sure at some point in the future I write about this, but I just gotta write down all the details.” Like the story where I hid my poopy underwear in a wood pile. That was a story I had forgotten about for so long. Then I remembered it while I was still working at Hallmark and was like, “Oh, I did that. That was a real thing that happened. I need to remember I did that because I feel like other people will enjoy it.” So I really only was writing stuff for the book for about six or seven months during the time period right after I got the book contract.

Can you tell me about how you found your agent?

I have been very fortunate to work with a lot of people who have championed my work and understood my voice for a while. A friend of mine and a very talented author and artist, Rachel Ignotofsky, is someone I worked with at Hallmark. She left a couple of years before I did to start writing books. She wrote and illustrated a book called 50 Women in Science. That was a bunch of different short biographies of women with beautifully illustrated accompanying pieces. Monica Odom is also her agent. Rachel was working with her and as I was talking to Rachel after I left Hallmark, I said I want to write bigger things, she was like, “Let me introduce you to Monica.” Which was very gracious of her and is a thing that I’ve been trying to make sure I perpetuate.

I appreciate people that are nice for the sake of being nice and helpful just because they know how helpful it is when other people give your name to somebody as a boost. Monica was kind of familiar with stuff that I had written. She’d read a couple of big pieces. We had an initial phone call and she was like, “What are the kinds of things you want to do?” And I asked her about the kind of projects she’s interested in. From that conversation, we were like, “OK, we both have this other person whose opinion we trust, who can vouch for each of us and the projects we want to work on really meld.”

When I started those initial calls with her, I did have a couple agents reach out to me. That happened after I had a piece published in The New Yorker. That was the first time that I had agents reach out and say, “Hey, I like the stuff that you’re writing. Have you ever thought about writing a book?” Which was exciting, because I want everybody to love me all the time and also like strangers with like fancy job titles sending me emails—the little serotonin that my brain needs all the time.

That was helpful context to see what other agencies are out there. My experience with publishing is limited to this book that I’m doing. Seeing what other agencies were doing, talking to other people who had a similar path as I did, where they published humor pieces and then signed with an agent was helpful. Mostly just to know what kinds of agencies are out there and what different agents do for different people.

The thing that I’m finding is usually bigger opportunities come from somebody who’s already at that space and helping pull people up to that level. That’s a thing that I want to make sure that I’m perpetuating. I want to make sure I am opening the door for other people and other groups who might not otherwise get the opportunity to do the things that they can do very well.

Well, that’s being a good literary citizen.

That’s the motto I’m trying to live by. There’s a lot of things happening right now and it feels silly to talk about a book that is just about me and my experience. But like I said, the things that have helped me understand myself better are when people write about themselves and rather than being like, “Here’s this thing that’s happened. Here’s how you should think about it.”

I get a lot more from somebody talking about an experience, saying how they dealt with it, saying what it was for them, and then giving me the space as a reader to be like, “I can see how that’s similar to things I’ve experienced or seen. What does that mean for me?” It’s hard not to feel personally tied to every part of my job when my job is very personal, sharing parts of myself. I want to make sure I’m doing things in the writing world that I am trying to do as just a human first.

The kind of writing you described is the kind of writing I love to read, so I totally get it. Where do you get your writing ideas from? How do you decide what’s funny and when you should roll with it for a piece?

Man, I wish I had like a scientific explanation for you. I wish I could say “I do this, and then, oh my god, it’s so funny and everyone laughs at it.” It’s a lot of different things.

For conceptual humor pieces, usually those ideas come from things I’m experiencing in real life. The first piece I got published in The New Yorker was called a compiled list of collective nouns—names for different groups of things, like a group of ants is called a colony. That idea came from a time I was driving home from a coffee shop and I saw a group of 20-somethings in business casual clothes, standing outside of what definitely looked like a new coworking space. My brain went, “A group of a group of millennials is called a coworking space!” Then I was like, “Maybe there are more of those. Maybe I could do a whole thing like that.”

Best case scenario, I’m doing a thing and then my brain forms a joke. Usually I notice something and think it’s funny or strange, and I don’t think other people are calling much attention to it. And so trying to frame it in a way that I’m like, “We need to talk about how ridiculous this thing is.” I also have a running notes list that’s half ideas that make no sense and if anybody saw it, they would be concerned.

When I was writing a book proposal, I had days where I was just making lists of different stories that I know I have, or moments of taking inventory of the things I know I can talk about at length. I guess that’s how I come up with ideas is making lists. It feels productive, but also like you’re not actually having to write, which is the hardest part of writing is actually doing it.

So, once you’ve gotten your ideas out and you’re picking ideas from your list, what is your writing process like?

Right now, it’s very different. I have zero routine right now when it comes to writing. But I usually work from home most of the time. I commit the literary sin of writing from my bed all the time. I know people say you shouldn’t do that, but it’s comfortable. Isn’t that the dream, to sit in your bed all day and somehow you make money because of it?

When it was still a safe idea to go into public spaces, I would go to coffee shops and mostly rearrange my phone and computer until they closed and pretended to write, made sure nobody was looking over my shoulder and seeing that I’ve been sitting in the same spot for five hours and haven’t written anything. Because I live in Kansas City, I have a car and I can drive places and it’s a relaxing thing for me. Probably not a great thing for the environment—sorry environment, but driving around is my muse. If I was ever feeling stuck, I just drove around a bit. I am not somebody who gets ideas in the shower. It’s sitting in a car driving down very Midwestern streets.

I did that too back when it was safe to go out!

So, you have a chapter on procrastination in your book. I giggled at how you turned in a blank CD to your professor and just pretended there was something wrong with the file that was supposed to be your class assignment.

Obviously, you had to do something different to get this book out there. Can you tell me if your procrastination was still a problem when you were working on the book and how you overcame it?

The thing about procrastinating is regardless of whether you’re doing something boring or the thing that you’ve been telling everyone you want to do for a long time, it feels good to not do the thing you’re being told to do. I have a pretty good balance of never wanting to do the thing I’m being told to do while also desperately wanting the approval of anybody who’s remotely in charge of me. So that part of my brain took over a lot of the time where I’m like, “I need my agent to like me. I want the publisher to like me.” Usually what I would do is having the routine of a drive to a coffee shop and sitting there for however long and pretending to work and then actually going to work.

I had to play the game of, “If I write for 30 minutes, then I can look at Twitter once,” which is ridiculous that I’m almost 30 and my lizard brain is still like, “What’s the treat that I get for doing even the smallest amount of work?” I probably embellished how much of a procrastinator I still am. I’m fortunate enough to mostly like the job that I’m doing. Sometimes it feels like I’m procrastinating real life by writing about things that happened to me 20 years ago. So I definitely did procrastinate, but probably not. Then it was not turning any blank Word docs into my publisher. Like, “It was so weird! There were words on it and now they’re gone.” They’d be like, “You tried that last week.”

How did you find the balance between personal essays and satire when you were writing this book? I’m wondering if it’s difficult to switch in between things where you’re not the character in one piece but you are the character in another piece.

The thing I found easiest was going by thematic section. There’s five sections of the book. Part of that is because that’s how I wrote the pieces, grouping them together. It was helpful to see “What am I talking about? How much am I talking about each of these things? Is there an equal balance?” It was also helpful to see if I wanted an equal balance of personal essays and satirical pieces, mostly just in number, not necessarily in length.

A satirical piece can feel like a breath of fresh air after you read like a big, long thing. That’s why I tried to work through that balance. As far as switching gears between the two, because I’ve been writing those conceptual circle pieces for a while now, if I have like a solid idea I’m able to write a full first draft fairly quickly. It takes me a lot longer to write a personal essay. Usually what I do is I would have a day where I’m like, “I’m gonna finish the section on being professional.” And I like, “I have a couple of satirical pieces left and I have a personal essay left” and I would decide whether or not I was in the mood to talk about myself or think about something else entirely. It’s very much like a, “What am I feeling in this moment?” kind of thing. I’m not somebody that can crank out a satirical piece and then also write a really in-depth personal essay. The essays I had to be in a mindset ready to talk about whatever personal thing I was going to be talking about.

How did you make the leap from writing and editing greeting cards to full-length humor?

That came mostly from an itch inside of myself, feeling like I wanted to be writing something else. Like most people who graduated in the early 2010s, finding any job that was going to help pay off my student loans was my initial goal and Hallmark did that. And it also somehow applied to the degree that I got.

Hallmark was a very good introduction to adulthood as well as being a pseudo graduate school where I was learning things about the writing world that I wouldn’t have learned in school that I only had to learn on the job, learning that I enjoy editing and I can do it, but the thing that I actually want to do most of the time is write.

Making that switch from working at a corporation to doing quite literally the opposite of that came from the feeling of, “This is a thing I want to do and if I don’t do it now, I don’t know if I’m ever going to do it.” The reason I left hallmark was I was offered a job at an advertising agency. I left Hallmark with the assumption that I’d be writing more and I’d have more creative liberty and it wouldn’t be just writing the same things about birthdays every couple of weeks.

When I got to that ad agency, I was like, “Oh no, this is not the thing that I wanted.” I realized that even if I was writing more, I needed to be writing about something I cared about, that didn’t feel like it was soul sucking in order to do that job. I pushed myself into the pool of freelance writing because I was in a job where I was miserable.

I had months where I was freelancing for Hallmark actually. I had a good four or five months where I didn’t get any humor pieces accepted. Everything I wrote was rejected, but for good reasons. That switch from working at a company to working for myself was not as gradual as it is for some people, which mostly came being at that advertising job and realizing that I don’t have a full load of creative writing clients, but I would rather try and stay afloat in that pool than try and survive in this one.

How were you able to manage your time and overcome the hiccups of launching your career?

I definitely had panic moments where I was on Indeed, just searching creative writing jobs anywhere and was like, “Should I go back to work?” Fortunately, I was able to freelance for Hallmark because I had been away for whatever allotted amount of time that I needed to be away for. So that was enough of a small, steady thing that I was able to start figuring out what I want to write.

I started looking at the websites that I read to see if they were hiring writers and if they accept submissions. I saw that Bustle was hiring part-time writers so I applied for that. Freelancing for Hallmark and getting that part-time job with Bustle were the two things that set my anchor so I could start to figure out the fun stuff that I wanted to do. But I didn’t jump from writing content for a women’s website to writing a book overnight. Trying to build my portfolio of pieces that were actual things that I wanted to be writing took a while.

It was a lot of writing humor pieces. Then as I started to build up enough of those pieces, I was able to start getting this portfolio of the stuff that represents me and the stuff I want to write and was helpful to try and talk to a literary agent about turning that into a book.

So would you say you got rejected a lot? How did you cope with that rejection?

Probably a lot of crying and feeling like everything that I’ve written is bad. My brain still does that a little bit. As cliche as it sounds, I have grown a thicker skin from mere exposure. Hearing a “no” from a place where I submit a one-off piece does not feel nearly as bad as it felt when I was first trying to get things accepted.

Part of that is because I know that I have had pieces accepted by places that were dream publications. So I have that the part of my brain, that’s like, “No, you you’ve done the thing. You can do the thing. And you getting a no does not mean that you’re a bad writer. It doesn’t negate everything you’ve ever done.”

Every single day I was trying to write at least one good new thing that I could submit so that I would have a volume of things I could use and at least one of them was a good fit. Obviously not all of those pieces were good, but that first acceptance always feels so good. The first piece I got accepted when I started freelancing was for Bust and was “Bath and Body Works is the Suburban Nonsense I Crave,” which ended up being in the book. It’s one of my favorite things I’ve written.

It does feel a little better knowing that every other person I know who writes or does any kind of creative field has been rejected more times than they’ve been accepted and even people I admire still get told no. So yeah, knowing that it has less to do with me as a person and more just like, it’s a job. People are gonna say yes or no based on what’s right for their publication.

So what’s next for you now that you have your first book published?

I have ideas for book two. I’m in very early stages of pitching that. It will be another collection of funny essays and satirical pieces. I would love to write for TV. I’m in very early talks about how to adapt Weird But Normal into a [TV] series, what that would look like as some sort of fictionalized thing. And also just hoping that we all don’t have to live inside of our house for the rest of our lives.

Is there anything else you’d like to add?

I touched on this a tiny bit, but I’m trying to be conscious of the fact that I’m promoting something in a time where there are much bigger things going on. While big things are going on, I still am seeking out little bits of like levity that don’t ignore what’s happening, but at least lift a tiny bit of the weight off of your shoulders. There are a lot of writers and comedians who have dedicated their days to fighting for racial justice and doing things within their own community to like help with homelessness and help with issues that disproportionately affect Black and brown people.

I hope that is the thing that continues and it’s not going to stop. Part of thinking of ideas for this book was like, “I don’t want to write a book that feels like all I’m talking about is I’m a half-Asian, half-white woman who’s living here and I’m this age.”

There’s been this weird, both encouraging and disheartening sway in a lack of representation in any sort of inclusive voices, anybody who isn’t basically a rich white man. There’s been a huge sway from things we haven’t heard from literally anyone else to acknowledging that we need to hear diverse stories to everybody needs to hear about everybody else. And kind of using that as people of color can only talk about being a person of color. Women can only talk about being a woman, anybody who identifies as LGBTQ can only talk about that.

A thing I appreciate and the people that I read and follow, like Samantha Irby and people like Patti Harrison, we’re able to consistently do things that are so funny and also acknowledge the fact that their experience is shaped by who they are. But that is not the only thing there. I don’t know people who have been able to exist in these traditionally exclusive spaces in a way that doesn’t feel like they have to like capitalize on their differences. That’s a thing I’ve been trying to figure out how to do.

I love that people are excited to read books by women of color. I love that people are wanting to support Black-owned bookstores. I also hope that we get to a point where we realize that’s not the beginning and end of who a person is. The whole point of my book is like, “I hear all these things that shaped who I am and some of them are specific to me, but they’re all under this guise of no part of who you are as a person exists in a vacuum.”

The post Weird But Normal: An Interview With Mia Mercado appeared first on Writer's Digest.

(7 Comedy Writing Techniques & How Clichés Are Used in Writing Humor)

I went to the Gotham Comedy Club to watch a friend, the extremely talented amateur standup comedian (and WD Advertising Director) Tony Carrini, perform amid a lineup of about 10 other performers. Tony performed like an absolute pro, easily getting more laughs and showing better pacing and character than the vast majority of the other comics.

But one of them understandably stole the show when he made a surprise appearance—totally unannounced and unadvertised—at the venue.

When the host announced that Jerry Seinfeld was about to take the stage, I didn’t fully register what was happening. But there he was a moment later, rattling off jokes with the ease and rhythm of, well, one of the most famous comedians of all time.

Apparently, Jerry makes a habit of spontaneously showing up at the club to test out jokes for future paid gigs. He had a couple of notecards with him, I assume with notes on the new material, but left them on the stool behind him and only glanced at them once, instead pacing the stage and engaging the crowd of about 30 attendees.

The routine was easily one of the funniest I’ve ever seen—in fact, one of the funniest I’ve seen him perform, so I’m hoping to see the set in one of his larger-scale shows soon.

But the real ace in the hole for me was the short Q&A he provided at the end of the set.

One clever audience member, themselves an aspiring comic, asked him how he comes up with his material.

(6 Tips for Successful Comedy Writing)

In response, Jerry Seinfeld himself shared a five-step rundown of his comedy writing process, which is not only useful for aspiring standup comedians, but also has broader applications for writers looking to add comedic elements to their own work.

Here’s (roughly) what he said:

Comedy Writing Tips from Jerry Seinfeld

Step 1: Start with a funny topic.

The funniest part of Jerry’s routine began when he started talking about how ridiculous it is when people console you over a death by saying, “At least he died doing something he loved.” Instead, Jerry insisted he’d rather die doing something he hated so he wouldn’t have to keep doing it—something like cleaning a row of portable toilets.

He managed to get about five jokes out of the portable toilet topic, and the whole house was howling by the end of it.

He said he came up with that particular (sub)set of jokes when he was discussing the death-consolation topic with another comic and mentioned the portable toilets in conjunction with it. His comic friend told him, “Hey, that’s a funny area. You should do more on that.” And so he did.

In other forms of writing, you can generate whole books, stories, and chapters this way. Brainstorm ideas and topics that you find interesting or funny and see where they take you—you might find a whole novel hiding in a portable toilet.

Step 2: Think of emotions and images around the funny topic to come up with more jokes.

“Think: How many jokes can you get out of a subject?” Jerry said. “Two to three is good; four to five is great; more and you’re a master.”

In the series of jokes about the horrors of portable toilets, Jerry miraculously managed to get big laughs without directly mentioning human waste. Instead, he focused on specific images and emotions around the experience of interacting with a portable toilet—the dread inspired by the hinges on the door, the way you feel inside of one, the mental scarring and lack of sleep you experience when the sight of its contents is permanently branded into your memory.

Jerry’s jokes—and really, most standup jokes—often rely on relatability (cue his iconic “What’s the deal with that?”) and surprise (as in the unexpected way he describes an ordinary experience). Thinking about the way the topic makes you feel and the visuals around it makes it more relatable and provides you with more surprising elements to work with.

(Comedy Writing Secrets: Triple the Funny)

You can also apply these tactics in other forms of writing: Relatability will draw the audience in and make them more sympathetic to your characters, while surprising circumstances and creative language keep them turning pages.

Step 3: Assemble the jokes logically and connect them.

As I mentioned before, he transitioned into the topic of portable toilets from the death-consolation topic, from which he had already drawn four or five jokes. From there, he stayed on portable toilets for about five more, each joke flowing easily into the next.

Not only that, but if one of your jokes is too similar to another, you can still use both if you arrange them right. “You can put separate similar jokes into two if you put space between them, he advised.

The first joke and the last one were fairly similar, referencing the experience of dread and mental scarring you experience inside. The second one was punchier and funnier, so he placed it at the end of the set after two less similar jokes.

You can bookend a chapter or scene with humorous elements in the same way—introduce the joke at the beginning, and hark back to it at the end to get a laugh out of your readers.

Step 4: Compress the jokes and adjust the pacing.

The most interesting part of his discussion was around pacing.

“I’m not that funny,” Jerry said, stunning the room. “So I became obsessed with the technique of standup comedy. The closer you can get the jokes together, the bigger the laughs will be. Compression is a very important aspect.”

The goal is to trigger “the roll”—that is, deliver one joke quickly after another so that the laughter builds on itself, people don’t have time to fully stop laughing, and each joke makes everyone laugh harder. This technique also keeps the audience loose and more ready to laugh at the next joke, regardless of whether it’s actually funnier than the previous one.

(18 Ways to Write Funnier Fast)

For those of us who write books, screenplays, and stories, this advice helps you think about your narrative pacing. The closer together your jokes, the funnier your scene has the potential to be.

Step 5: Test out the jokes in smaller groups.

Basically, do what Jerry did at the Gotham Comedy Club—try out jokes among a low-stakes crowd to see how they do before trying them at a larger venue. For amateur comics, that means testing out jokes with your friends and family, seeing how they react, and then trying open mic nights and amateur comedy shows.

If you write comedic stories or books, that might mean having an editor or critique group read it to offer feedback before pitching and/or publishing it.

So there you have it—comedy writing advice from one of the greatest comedians of the current (and previous century). Whether you write comedic stories or you plan on delivering standup, Jerry’s tips can help you perfect your technique, timing, and structure. Break a leg!

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To the uninitiated, Reddit can seem like the Wild West of the web—and that’s not entirely inaccurate. But “the front page of the internet” is also a wealth of information, knowledge, resources, inspiration and so much more. Part anonymous message board platform, part social news and media aggregator, Reddit has more than 520 million regular monthly visitors and more than 1.2 million active subreddits, or categorized message boards that you can subscribe to in order to make popular submissions appear on your “front page” when you visit Reddit.com or the mobile app. The most common subreddits include /r/aww for cute critters, /r/pics for neat photos, and /r/askreddit for posing social questions to the community—but really, there’s one for everything. And I mean everything, including one dedicated entirely to photos of bread stapled to trees, but also including several excellent writing subreddits that provide critiques, craft and publishing advice, ideas and prompts, and more.

I’ve been participating on the site for more than six years, including maintaining a fairly active presence on several of these writing subreddits while lurking on others, so I thought I’d supplement my 101 Best Websites for Writers feature in the May/June 2019 issue with a guide to the many Reddit destinations where writers can find useful information and resources.

First thing to know: Reddit is anonymous and very, very public. Don’t post personal details unless you want the whole world knowing them. Plus it’s usually against the rules.

Speaking of, be sure to read and follow the rules of the subreddits you visit, or you’ll risk your post being deleted—or even having your account banned.

Also, especially in the writing subs, Redditors don’t pull any punches with criticism, and the communities include basically every demographic in the world (with a tilt in favor of millennial men), so steel your heart and mind before engaging or posting questions, images or written work. Upvote content you enjoy and engage with other users’ posts to encourage activity and community in each sub.

Reddit for Writers: 44 Writing Subreddits to Explore

General

Below are the two general writing subreddits—the differences lie in the size, personality, and attitudes you’ll encounter in each one. The first is the largest subreddit and community dedicated to writing, but the latter is more typically open to critiques and has more flexible rules around what you’re allowed to post.

• Writing (/r/writing)
• Writers (/r/writers)

Critique & Community

• DestructiveReaders (/r/destructivereaders): “DestructiveReaders isn’t about writers being nice to writers; it’s about readers being honest with writers. We deconstruct writing to construct better writers.” Remember when I said that Reddit isn’t for the faint of heart? That’s especially accurate in this writing critique subreddit.
• WritersGroup (/r/writersgroup): Visit this community for constructive and thoughtful peer-review of your written work. While this group is helpful and has a decent amount of subscribers, it’s not terribly active.
• NaNoWriMo (/r/nanowrimo): A community dedicated to support and advice during National Novel Writing Month.

Publication Advice

• PubTips (/r/pubtips): Started by user MNBrian, who works for a literary agency and also runs the Habits & Traits newsletter, this polished subreddit features wisdom from a variety of publishing experts and allows you to post your query letter for easy community critique.
• SelfPublish (/r/selfpublish): This extremely helpful subreddit is a place “for writers to discuss the process of self-publishing, share experiences in the ‘industry,’ and read up on self-publishing news.”
• Publishing (/r/publishing): This reasonably active community is great for “talking about publishing—the industry, the future, trends, and ideas.”

Genres, Forms, and Age Categories

• Poetry (/r/poetry): This supportive community of over 300,000 writers is dedicated to all things poetry, including advice on submitting poetry for publication, discussing poetic devices and forms, and appreciating great poetry. Its sister subreddit PoetryOC (/r/poetryoc) is a great place to share your original poetry and also has a sizeable following.
• Screenwriting (/r/screenwriting): This large and versatile community offers excellent resources and a sense of community for screenwriters—and writers of all kinds, for that matter—including advice from flagged experts who participate regularly.
• Fiction (/r/fiction): This group is for writers and readers and can be a great place to look for ideas and casual feedback. It’s accessible to a broad range of writers, from those who casually pen short online fiction to traditionally published work.
• Fantasy (/r/fantasy): With almost 600,000 subscribers currently, this subreddit is “the internet’s largest discussion forum for the greater Speculative Fiction genre,” featuring “respectful dialogue related to speculative fiction in literature, games, film, and the wider world.” Great for writers and readers.
• Mystery (/r/mystery): This sub is for readers and writers, but it’s a great place to discuss the genre across the board, and the community provides writing help as well.
• EroticAuthors (/r/eroticauthors): Do your tales get steamy? This subreddit—which, in case it wasn’t obvious, can be NSFW topically—encourages discussion of the craft and business of publishing erotic works. It’s especially valuable for self-publishing advice.
• WritersOfHorror (/r/writersofhorror): In this active community, submit your horror-genre stories and scenes for critique, ask for advice from the community, or share interesting finds related to the genre.
• NoSleep (/r/nosleep): I’m not a horror writer and, generally speaking, it’s not my favorite genre, but NoSleep is one of my favorite subreddits in general. The content, short horror stories, is created by amateur and professional horror writers, and readers who enjoy the content populate the comment sections and upvote their favorite stories (with trophies for the best stories awarded monthly and annually). Here’s the fun part, though: The community comments and responds to stories as if they are 100% real. The immersion is thrilling.
• Songwriting (/r/songwriting): This sub is a helpful place for songwriters to find feedback, offering advice, and generally discussing the songwriting process.
• SciFiWriters (/r/scifiwriting): This community of speculative fiction and science fiction writers is a wealth of discussion, critique, and inspiration for those whose work falls under these genres.
• YAwriters (/r/yawriters): Discuss your young adult WIP, including “titles, characters, plots, themes, settings, critiques, and any information pertinent to authors and genre.”
• Journaling (/r/journaling): This is more of a hobbyist’s subreddit, but its visual theme is aesthetically polished, it’s active, and it offers a fantastic place to work on mindful journaling that can help you improve your writing habits and apply them to other projects. Plus, some of the art here provides great eye candy for those of us whose writing notebooks are equal part doodles.
• Comicbooks (/r/comicbooks): For comic book writers, readers, artists, and appreciators.
• Nonfiction (/r/nonfiction): “A place for non-fiction writers, agents, publishers and editors to discuss their craft and industry.” (Note: This subreddit is very small and not very active.)

Freelance & Article Writing

• FreelanceWriters (/r/freelancewriters): This laid-back subreddit invites participants to share experiences, ask questions and seek feedback—plus all the fun of complaining about clients and the freelance life.
• Journalism (/r/journalism): This active sub is a great resource for keeping tabs on the world of professional journalism.
• TechnicalWriting (/r/technicalwriting): Ever wanted to get into technical writing? Fun fact: It pays a lot better than many other writing practices if you have the right certifications and experience. Learn about it in this sub, from breaking into deep info for pros.

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Prompts

• WritingPrompts (/r/writingprompts): With over 13.3 million subscribers, this subreddit—which was featured in our 101 Best Websites for Writers roundup in 2019—is the place to flex your creative writing muscles. Find years worth of prompts, respond to the latest ones and get feedback on your work from eager readers.
• ScreenwritingPrompts (/r/screenwritingprompts): This small community allows screenwriters to find prompts tailored to their craft.

Inspiration, Motivation, Commiseration, and Fun

• JustWriterThings (/r/justwriterthings): The best place to post and read your favorite crappy but relatable memes about the writing life.
• KeepWriting (/r/keepwriting): Pure writing motivation from an active group. “A subreddit dedicated to helping writers improve their craft and fuel their creativity. Whether you’re looking to get feedback on an idea, hear a critique, or get unstuck in a story, this is the right place.”
• Comics (/r/comics): This one is mostly just for fun, but find relatable webcomics to keep you going—or, you know, distract yourself from writing. Or, if you’re a comic writer yourself, post your own!
• GetMotivated (/r/getmotivated): Motivational memes. Think Shia Laboeuf yelling at you or Terry Crews reminding you to eat your yogurt.

Tools & Information

• Worldbuilding (/r/worldbuilding): Even if I weren’t a writer, I would subscribe to this subreddit. A lot of what you find is artwork, but some of the participants are extremely talented and can teach you more than a thing or two about bringing your imaginary world to life on the page.
• Etymology (/r/etymology): I’m extremely active on the subreddit (sharing some of the Useless Etymology insights), so this is a bit of a plug for one of my favorite internet diversions. But seriously, learning about word histories and how languages are developed can not only help you polish your writing in general—it can also help you apply the same principles to naming characters and locations, developing fictional languages, and more.
• ConLangs (/r/conlangs): This subreddit just generally fascinating, but it’s quite active and incredible for writers who need to build languages for their stories. It’s “focused on the discussion of constructed languages (conlangs), tools and activities to aid you in the construction of your own conlang, and creating a community environment where we can all enjoy conlanging together.”
• TodayILearned (/r/todayilearned): This sub is interesting for anyone, but personally I find it to be a great mine for story starters and detail building. You can find facts about history, science, language and so much more.
• Psychology (/r/psychology): Get to know your brain—and everyone else’s, including your characters’! This active subreddit will help you dive into the inner workings of any mind.
• AskMeAnything (/r/iama): Can’t interview a famous person for an article or book? Not to worry—odds are they’ve done an AMA before. Search the archives of the subreddit for interesting community Q&As with figures including Barack Obama, Bill Gates, Edward Snowden, Dr. Jane Goodall, Buzz Aldrin, and even the Cookie Monster.

Research & Experts

• AskHistorians (/r/askhistorians): Got a question about the time period your book is set in? Look no further. AskHistorians has verified experts waiting to respond to your every query. Plus, check the archives for some seriously fascinating inspiration.
• AskScience (/r/askscientists): Same idea—use this resource to get all your science facts straight. The community’s experts include physicists, astronomers, mathematicians, medical doctors, biologists, neuroscientists, and more. Both this sub and AskHistorians have strict rules about sourcing information, so you can be sure you’re getting correct details.
• AskScienceFiction (/r/asksciencefiction): So maybe AskScience can’t answer your oddly specific question about what happens when you transport Jello to a fictional planet ruled by bees who breathe helium. AskScienceFiction has your back.
• NoStupidQuestions (/r/nostupidquestions): Like Mastercard, for everything else there’s NoStupidQuestions. Also the archives are a wealth of story ideas. (See “How do you repair relations with crows?“)

Books & Reading

• SuggestMeABook (/r/suggestmeabook) and Book Suggestions (/r/booksuggestions) — These are both great if you’re looking for your next read, but they can also be a clever tool for coming up with comp titles. Hint: Describe your book as if it’s one you’re looking for and the community will recommend similar ones. Instant comp title recs!
• Books (/r/books): Reddit’s book club. (No seriously, they have their own book club you can join. And it’s huge.) Talk about books you’ve read!
• Literature (/r/literature): Like Books but with a focus on “deeper discussions of plays, poetry, short stories, and novels.” Especially great if you’re into literary criticism, history and theory.

This is far from a comprehensive list of subreddits for writers, but it’ll certainly get you started. If you didn’t see your genre or form here, try searching for it—you’ll likely discover a subreddit full of your tribe waiting to engage with you and help you succeed.

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The post Reddit for Writers: 47 Writing Subreddits to Explore appeared first on Writer's Digest.

Laughter is what scientists call an affective nonspeech vocalization, which means it is one way humans (and other species) convey emotion without speech. We are learning more every day about the neurological basis for laughter, using techniques like Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging.

(18 Ways to Write Funnier Fast.)

Contrary to the title, you can’t make people laugh (unless they are ticklish). But you can help them laugh. What I mean is, there are specific techniques you can use to create the conditions that evoke laughter. Those conditions are slightly different depending on the kind of comedy you are doing: stand-up, theater, or literary. But they all depend on the basic human mechanisms on which comedy is based.

In a novel, unlike standup or a play, there is no performer to help you create a comic experience. Instead, you have to help the reader create that experience in their own imagination. Most readers have no training in comic delivery, so it is a challenge. Here are five techniques that I use when I am editing comic dialogue in a novel:

1) Create funny characters.

Someone once asked me how to write funny dialogue and I answered “create funny characters.” He did not seem satisfied with my response. But I was serious, in this sense.

(7 Rules of Picking Names for Fictional Characters.)

Comedy doesn’t need to derive from character, even if the best and most efficient comedy does. Comedy has value in itself, and more than just entertainment value (but I won’t get into my philosophy of comedy here—that is a longer discussion). It is nice but not necessary that the comedy both entertain and advance the goals of the novel, enriching the character or relationships or advancing the story.

But though the line may not derive from the character, it should not undermine the character either. A comic line needs to be natural to the character who says it. If the line is out of character, you’ll trip up the reader and lose the laugh and the character.

2) Don’t telegraph the joke.

Comedy results from an expectation in the reader that is suddenly upset. The set-up line, the line (or two or seven) before the laugh needs to create that expectation. But it can’t be written in such a way that the joke itself will be obvious. Don’t help your reader to the conclusion; just build the bridge for them to get there.

3) Put the funny part at the end.

Don’t step on the joke. It is amazing to me how often this happens. The trigger—the part of the sentence that initiates the laugh—needs to be the last thing in the line, or as close as possible as you can get it. And don’t put tags like “he said” after the line or you’ll smother the laugh. Unless “he said” is the funny part, he said.

4) Craft the rhythm of the line to lead to the trigger.

This is where I expend the most time in writing dialogue: making the rhythm of the line point to the trigger. Get out all the extraneous words before the trigger. Velocity is as important in comedy as timing. A slow line lets the reader catch up to the joke, which undercuts the laugh.

Delete as many commas as you can without losing the sense of the line. Commas are the enemy of comedy.

(3 Tips for Writing Horror Comedy.)

5) Leave space after the line for the laugh.

In a play, actors are taught to wait for the laugh. This is a tricky skill—you have to wait just long enough to know that it is coming, but not too long to lose the momentum of the scene. And one of the great misdeeds among actors is stepping on someone else’s laugh, guaranteed to make you unpopular with your fellow actors.

In a novel, you don’t have actors to create your timing (or not). So you have to do it by yourself. One way is the in-line rhythm discussed already. Another technique is just as important: Create space after the trigger to wait for the laugh. Give the reader something unimportant to create the time to process the comedy.

For example, don’t reveal that a character is the long-lost child right after a laugh. If you do, you lose either the laugh or the plot point.

So what do you put instead to create the space? I often use simple business for that purpose, which is why my dialogue reads something like a play. It is spacing for the laugh. And because I hate writing description.

And most importantly don’t put funny lines one after another. Give us a break.

A Final Thought

Someone reading your novel and smiling is wonderful. But one of the most important aspects of laughter is that it is designed by evolution to be shared. Laughing out loud is a marvelous way to bring joy not to just one person but a whole group. It is worth a little extra attention to make that happen.

*****

Dialogue can be one of the most interesting parts of a book to read, but only if it is done right. Sharpen your writing skills and challenge yourself to craft engaging, yet believable dialogue that will keep your readers interested. When you take this online writing workshop you’ll discover how to write dialogue that advances your story’s plot. Plus, examine examples, formats, and tips for writing dialogue.

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Don’t get me wrong—I think horror movies are a tremendous amount of fun, and people love to be scared. But my favorite ones are those which are at least slightly self-aware of the tropes and play with them. Shaun of the Dead, Zombieland and From Dusk Till Dawn are great examples of that. That’s also something that I tried to do in my books, Night of the Living Cuddle Bunnies and From Sunset Till Sunrise.

In Shaun of the Dead, Edgar Wright plays with a few horror tropes. One is the deserted streets after the inciting event. Shaun goes to the store and is so wrapped up in his own worries that he doesn’t even realize that the only people out walking are mindless zombies. Another is **Spoiler Alert** the jerk victim. The character of David is so awful to Shaun throughout the movie, that you just KNOW he’s going to get it. And, when he goes to stand by the windows in The Winchester, you are absolutely expecting it, and can’t wait for him to become zombie chow.

(How I Got My Agent: Jonathan Rosen)

In Night of the Living Cuddle Bunnies, I played with many horror tropes found in movies such as Gremlins and Fright Night. In the sequel, From Sunset Till Sunrise, I tweaked tropes from vampire mythology. In my book, the characters are VERY aware of vampire lore and mention it throughout, and I find that works well. It gives the reader a wink, and lets them know you’re honoring the material, but are just going to have some fun with it. Here are some of the vampire tropes that I used and tweaked.

Garlic:

We all know that garlic is the number one vampire repellent. But, what do you do if you don’t have any or you run out? Well, in From Sunset Till Sunrise, (FSTS from here on out), the main characters, Devin and his cousin, Tommy, use garlic powder. They sprinkle it around their beds, on the windowsills, and mix it with water to create a powerful, vampire-killing potion to fire from their Super-Soakers.

*****

Learn from the experts on how to write a horror story that excites readers for decades (or centuries)! Even the scariest and most attention-grabbing horror story ideas will fall flat without a foundation of knowledge about the genre and expectations of the audience. In this collection, you’ll find practical tips for writing horror stories that are plausible and cliché-free.

Click to continue.

*****

Counting:

Count isn’t just Dracula’s title or what the Muppet on Sesame Street likes to do. A lesser known part of vampire mythology is the vampire’s compulsive need to count things. Usually a good way to escape is by throwing a bag of sand or rice, to occupy them, so you can make a break for it. In FSTS, Tommy shows Devin that you can keep vampires busy even longer by throwing out numbers in the middle, and having it mess up their count. For example, if they’re up to 50, you can just start talking about the movie, Sixteen Candles, and this confuses the vampire, and they’ll resume their count at “Sixteen, seventeen, eighteen…”

Stakes:

Kids don’t usually go around carrying mallets and stakes. They’re too cumbersome. So, if you’re in school, the best way to combat vampires is sharpened pencils and a dart gun. First of all, pencils are easier to get, especially in school. Probably cheaper too. I mean, you can buy in bulk. And the best thing is, you can fire them from a distance, and don’t need to get close to the vampires at all! But, if you do get close, pencils are easier to hide than large wooden stakes.

(5 tips for writing scary stories and horror novels.)

The Attractive Vampire:

In just about every movie featuring vampires, they’re portrayed as attractive and lure or hypnotize the unsuspecting victim into their trap. In FSTS, Tommy points this out and tells Devin that there are no such things as ugly vampires, and they’re made that way in order to be able to prey on uglier people, who would normally have no chance to date someone like that. In other words, people like Devin.

The Vow:

In many vampire or zombie movies, someone whom the characters care about gets bitten. There’s usually an emotional scene, where they make the other characters promise to kill them if they turn. Naturally, the characters get upset and nobody wants to make that kind of promise. In FSTS, Tommy can’t raise his hand fast enough. He wants to be the one to be able to kill the creature when it happens.

…

There are more, but those are just a few of the vampire tropes that I played with. I hope that gives you some ideas of what to do in your horror/comedy novel. I think it’s important to honor and acknowledge the set rules in place. The ones everyone is familiar with. But, from there, by all means, have some fun. Tweak them to your needs. Like in Zombieland, when they talked about the importance of cardio. Remember, you don’t have to be the fastest one, but you sure don’t want to be the slowest. As long as you’re in better shape than at least one other person, you can escape, while they’re the one who serves as a zombie buffet. And in the end, I think that’s an important lesson for all of us.

Anyway, go have some fun and look up some horror tropes and try to figure out ways how you can make them funny, while still respecting the genre. Remember, you still want to make it scary, so we’re not making fun of, we’re just having fun with. There is a difference.

*****

Check out Jonathan Rosen’s From Sunset Till Sunrise

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I asked my husband, a professional comedy writer who worked on SNL, Seinfeld and In Living Color, how one could become successful at publishing humor. “Be born funny,” he said.

While some feel you can’t teach anyone to be amusing if they’re not, I argue that all writing can be improved on every level with work, good feedback, editing, and revision. Here are ways to quickly make your work more comical.

1. Try to replicate the exact humor page you want to emulate, but in your own words. You can download or order film, TV pilots, and sketch comedy shows from the web. When you do, underline the lines that make you laugh. Sometimes I even count words and syllables to copy the exact length and sound.

2. Experiment with a variety of forms: a 600-word online “Shouts & Murmurs,” timely late night comedy monologue jokes, a MAD magazine parody of a new TV show, a 400-word Onion news story satire. See which best suits your voice and your topic.

3. Watch repetitions. The third time you do something, it has the opposite meaning. If a character cries or screams once or twice you may fear or feel bad for them. Three times, it stops being sad or scary and becomes maudlin. My comedy writer pal Guy Nicolucci gives this example from the classic film comedy Airplane: Whenever Robert Hays’ character talks about his broken heart, the person in the seat next to him kills themselves. A woman hangs herself, a Japanese soldier commits seppuku. The third time, the Hindu man doses himself with gasoline, then lights a match … but Robert Hays is called away, interrupting the story. Relieved, the Hindu man blows out his match. Beat. Then he explodes.

4. Laughing is said to be a reaction to being surprised. So remember that lists are funnier when the last item you end on is surprising. In my piece on my nicotine withdrawal, I listed reasons why I should quit smoking: “Look younger, get healthier, have fewer wrinkles, spite enemies.”

5. Visit comedy clubs and see what works and what doesn’t work with comedians there. Try out material before an audience, class, or friends yourself and see if—and where—anyone laughs.

6. While I wouldn’t send fart or oral sex jokes to an editor at TheNewYorkTimes, if you’re going to be offensive, you’re better off joking around with good friends or testing out material at comedy clubs. Sometimes the best humor is edgy, outrageous or creepy. Think Sarah Silverman’s incest riffs or Amy Schumer’s masturbation routines. Though it’s said, “comedy equals tragedy plus time,” don’t be afraid to inappropriately poke jokes at current tragedies. TheOnion reacts ironically to mass shootings and after their darkly hilarious 9/11 issue two weeks after the World Trade Center attacks, they were inundated with positive comments from readers.

7. Don’t tell the reader something is funny, using the verb “he joked” or “chuckled” or saying “and they all laughed.” Show a scene and let your audience decide.

8. Self-deprecation is comedy gold. Start by writing a list of all the horrible things you hate about yourself. (Though if you trash your weight, race, or age, you have to be careful not to cross the line into also shaming others these days.)

9. Be unexpected by twisting clichés. A white grandma who talks like a gangsta rapper is funnier than a gangsta rapper speaking like you’d expect him to talk. Betty White’s off-color sexual jokes seem funnier because she’s a 96-year-old lady with beauty parlor hair.

[Our July/August 2018 issue is the Comedy Issue! Get a copy here or subscribe.]

10. Tell the truth about dark emotions nobody admits, like feelings of failure, jealousy, and loneliness and stories of bad breakups. “My college boyfriend didn’t sleep with one of my roommates. He slept with two of them,” often gets a laugh, since everyone can relate to lousy love stories. The topic led to my first book.

11. Try a funny unusual word you don’t hear often.The Dilbert Blog lists words that are funny within themselves: Mongolian, herdsman, vagina, trouser, shish kabob, storm drain, Johnson, slap, canoe, pulverize. These are especially good to weave into your work out of context. Use a thesaurus to find better verbs, nouns, and adjectives. “I hit him,” isn’t funny. “I pulverized him” might be. Dissecting his jokes, Jerry Seinfeld recently told TheNewYorkTimes, “You want things that are just fun to say. It’s fun to say Cocoa Crisp and Fruity Pebbles. It’s not fun to say Oat Bran.”

12. Use odd juxtapositions. I saw @Cheeseboy22’s Tweet “Homemaking tip: In a pinch, the end slices of bread can be used as toilet paper.” Gross, but I admit I laughed.

13. Try observational humor. I know it feels old-fashioned, but trashing everyday things that seem odd offers a good humor structure. Think of the questions, “Did you ever notice?” and “What’s the deal with …” à la Seinfeld and Larry David. To be updated, poke fun at mistakes you’ve made with the latest technology.

14. Specifics make everything funnier. “I ate too much junk food,” isn’t as good as “I ate seven bags of Chips Ahoy! chocolate chip cookies,” just as “I haven’t had sex in years” doesn’t sound as original as “I haven’t been laid since the Reagan administration.”

15. Exaggerate a lot. I often interject “Then $400,000 worth of therapy kicked in,” though I haven’t spent that much on shrinks over the years. And I always get a chuckle in my classes talking about my difficult childhood when I explain, “I was the weirdest, drunkest, angriest, most drunk and stoned person in Michigan who flunked the entire state.”

16. Nutty metaphors and similes add color, like Dennis Miller’s lines “America may be the best country in the world, but that’s kind of like being the valedictorian of summer school,” and “I’m one of the more pessimistic cats on the planet. I make van Gogh look like a rodeo clown.”

17. Cut extra words, unintentional repetitions, and clichés. The end of a sentence, paragraph or piece should land the weirdest or funniest. Often great humor pieces, like poems, are tight and succinct.

18. Half of what’s out there now is topical humor. Take a page from Stephen Colbert, Trevor Noah, Samantha Bee, and Seth Meyers, who upped their comedy games the minute Trump became president, along with Saturday Night Live, now reinvigorated by political mimics. Minutes after the picture was posted of Melania Trump going to the Houston hurricane in five-inch stilettos, a comedian colleague posted “Melania Heels the Nation.” Remember to keep a pen and pad handy when you watch the news.

Learn more in The Byline Bible

Over the last two decades, writing professor Susan Shapiro has taught more than 25,000 students of all ages and backgrounds at NYU, Columbia, Temple, The New School, and Harvard University. Now in The Byline Bible she reveals the wildly popular “Instant Gratification Takes Too Long” technique she’s perfected, sharing how to land impressive clips to start or re-launch your career.

In frank and funny prose, the bestselling author of 12 books walks you through every stage of crafting and selling short nonfiction pieces. She shows you how to spot trendy subjects, where to start, finish and edit, and divulges specific steps to submit work, have it accepted, get paid, and see your byline in your favorite publication in lightning speed.

With a foreword by Peter Catapano, long-time editor at The New York Times where many of Shapiro’s pupils have first seen print, this book offers everything you need to learn to write and sell your story in five weeks or less. Get a copy here.

The post 18 Ways to Write Funnier Fast appeared first on Writer's Digest.

Cartoonist @BobEckstein is illustrating his experience at the #BookExpo on behalf of WD. Who among us hasn't surreptitiously skirted out favorite authors at similar signings? Please share yours with us using #WritersAtTheExpo! @BookExpoAmerica #BookExpo18 pic.twitter.com/crY0ufqr9V

— Writer's Digest (@WritersDigest) May 31, 2018

Oops! If you walk in the wrong end of the joint—er, @javitscenter building—for @BookExpoAmerica, you run into the @CWCBExpo (a cannabis expo!). @BobEckstein #BookExpo18 #BookExpo #WritersAtTheExpo pic.twitter.com/iRx0e7nUCE

— Writer's Digest (@WritersDigest) May 31, 2018

That moment when WD Books editor @AmyMJones_5 and @BobEckstein meet up at @BookExpoAmerica—and Bob illustrates the encounter! #BookExpo18 #BookExpo #WritersAtTheExpo pic.twitter.com/8oPQQavcqa

— Writer's Digest (@WritersDigest) May 31, 2018

"Day Two at @BookExpoAmerica Today I’m better prepared and know what to bring now! @sleepingbearbks" @bobeckstein #BookExpo #BookExpo18 #WritersAtTheExpo pic.twitter.com/9nL9tdTJV0

— Writer's Digest (@WritersDigest) June 1, 2018

"I guess I didn’t notice the scale of the banners on Day One when I was all wrapped up into myself and my signing!" @BobEckstein @BookExpoAmerica #WritersAtTheExpo #BookExpo #BookExpo18 pic.twitter.com/3dhy0BhhQ6

— Writer's Digest (@WritersDigest) June 1, 2018

"Many of you are wondering, how’s the swag? Great if you’re into YA and then you’ll appreciate the bowls of candy. One booth gave champagne. Books I REALLY want to read not free." @BobEckstein @BookExpoAmerica #WritersAtTheExpo #BookExpo pic.twitter.com/Co7WCscnd1

— Writer's Digest (@WritersDigest) June 1, 2018

Leaving @BookExpoAmerica: "We’re all about 45 lbs. heavier." @BobEckstein #WritersAtTheExpo #BookExpo18 #BookExpo pic.twitter.com/077QUjz99D

— Writer's Digest (@WritersDigest) June 1, 2018

The post An Illustrated Guide to Book Expo 2018 appeared first on Writer's Digest.

In this second installment in a series about the impact of the #MeToo movement on how and what women write, Leigh Anne Jasheway focuses on women who write and publish comedy and satire. Read the first installment here.

There’s a rule in comedy writing that says Comedy = Tragedy + Time. We who write comedy often grapple with how much time needs to pass before we write funny stuff to help lighten the pain. But when it comes to the #MeToo movement, it seems women writers had been dealing with so much pent-up anger and sadness that the comedy started to flow almost immediately.

Comedy = #MeToo + Time

I spoke first with Brooke Preston and Carrie Wittmer, who in addition to writing, performing and teaching, are two of the editors of The Belladonna, a digital comedy and satire outlet by women and other marginalized genders.

Having reviewed submissions from over 500 writers and published work from more than 175 contributors in the past year, Brooke and Carrie have had a bird’s eye view of how women have approached #MeToo in their writing. They told me that they’ve had many women submitting comedy and satire that tackles harassment and sexual assault. As Brooke noted, “Women are reclaiming their needs, demands, wants, and changing how they frame their view of themselves outside the frame of a patriarchal society. They’re finding ‘satirical release’ in writing satire about heavier topics.”

Brooke’s use of the phrase “satirical release” reflects what is known in academic circles as the “theory of arousal relief,” but most of us know it as “I don’t feel like the world sucks so much when I’m laughing.” Writing funny stuff allows both the writer and the reader to let go of negative emotions such as anger, fear, anxiety, or that feeling someone is in the break room eating your vegan yogurt despite the post-it note with your name on it. It is one of the primary reasons humans laugh.

Brooke and Carrie, along with The Belladonna’s other editors Caitlin Kunkel and Fiona Taylor, penned an essay entitled “New Erotica for Feminists,” which quickly went viral. The article offers pick-up lines that women who have been triggered by #MeToo might now find sexy, for example: “There’s nothing I love more than watching two women in sweatpants engaging in hot political discourse. I love to watch… how you always let each other finish speaking without interrupting.” Carrie also wrote a Louis CK apology essay that was also very popular online, probably because it tapped into the fact that many women felt he had done such a bad job of it himself.

Silvia Bajardi is the editor of The Syndrome Magazine (https://thesyndromemag.com/), whose motto is “Empowering women, one laugh at a time.” The online magazine started in Italy but began publishing in the U.S. as well earlier this year. In addition to publishing essays and meme-like postcards on topics important to women worldwide, she has created a network of women comedy writers, many of whom are using their comedic talents to process daily experiences with misogyny and harassment.

Silvia noted that the women submitting to the magazine seem to be writing comedy with the mindset of creating a feeling of solidarity with their readers. After all, laughter helps us feel closer to each other and we feel stronger when we share a giggle with someone and understand that we’re all in this together. She also said that the #MeToo movement has helped women realize that jokes that have made us uncomfortable in the past aren’t “normal” just because they are accepted as funny in the typically male-dominated world of comedy writing and that we have the right to determine what is funny to us.

In 2017, Courtney O’Donnell founded The Pink Canoe, a satirical news site for millennial women. One of the first #MeToo-inspired satirical pieces she wrote was titled, “Having a Daughter: One Reason Why Men in Hollywood are Outraged by the Harvey Weinstein Scandal.” She told me, “The purpose of writing satire about these difficult issues is not to educate men or to solve rape culture, but to help people laugh and find relief.”

I also spoke with several women who write stand-up (a type of writing that often seems to be neglected in discussions of the craft). Dawn Lutrell noted that she feels more conscious of leaving audiences feeling empowered, not singled out or hurt, by her material. Gabby Jesus mentioned that she is more emboldened to make jokes based upon her personal experiences, while Lacie Wallace admitted that she is angrier in her writing and on stage, but at the same time she feels more genuine.

As for me, #MeToo has given me the confidence to know that there are readers who will appreciate and benefit from my jokes about consent (e.g., “Perhaps we need toy called ‘Don’t Tickle Me Without Consent Elmo.”), systemic oppression of women (“Does anyone else wonder if their deodorant will hold up while smashing the patriarchy?”), or cat-calling (“I called a cat ‘pretty kitty,’ then felt bad and added, ‘You’re a strong cat with good instincts who can achieve whatever you want.”).

A final way in which revelations about sexual harassment and assault may impact women who write comedy comes from the fact that three of those who have been accused publicly have been comedians (or former comedians): Louis CK, Aziz Ansari, and Al Franken. As Felicia Madison, a New York City comedian and comedy writer said, “The glass ceiling has been shattered by men falling through it.” This may provide both hope and opportunity to women who write comedy.

The great political satirist Molly Ivins once said, “Satire is the traditionally the weapon of the powerless against the powerful.” It makes sense then that #MeToo would trigger a barrage of satire and other forms of comedy from those who have felt powerless (both women and men). If you’ve been looking for a way to process your own #MeToo moments, no matter your gender, now might be just the time to add comedy and satire to your writing.

[Don’t miss Leigh Anne Jasheway’s online Comedy Writing Workshop.]

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