Why write humour?

I write via the I'm-just-here-for-the-ride method. The stories tend to bubble up from unknown sources (and, like water from unknown sources, they ocassionally make me very sick) and I'm just the vehicle/medium for getting them out in the open.

That said, most come out kinda moody, even my stuff for kids. So when the chapter synopses and characters for _Bubba & Earth Muffin_ came up, I dutifully spit them out into the computer and was surprised to find funny in there. Absurd, satirical, slapstick, sarcastic, sexual, black comedy. Might be why they've been lurking in my computer for 2 years without being fleshed out into an actual story. It's also why, when I heard about NaNo, I *knew* immediately what story was going to be told here.

I admire funny authors. It takes a lot of confidence to be funny. I envy folks who live/work/write in this genre most of the time.

I write humor because I'm a rather depressed person. I write to cheer myself up. It sounds trite but its true.

When I'm at my best, I'm funny. So, I figure if I write humor, I'm offering my best. I love it when people laugh at my take on life.

I write humour simply because it's fun. I mean, writing anything is fun, right?

Plus, it's kind of how my voice is. I'll write the first thing that pops into my head as it pops and usually, that means a lot of random and funny things.

Because there's nothing like making a bunch of people laugh to stroke the old ego.

Besides, I've been writing a lot of depressing stuff lately and doing too much of that is bad for the soul.

i don't really see myself as writing humour. my style is such that it is both funny and serious. i think my strengths are timing and tone. i love writing things that are both serious and funny, that have their moments of drama but keep up the wittiness throughout. and that's how things turn out when i write them organically; in 2004, my first ever nano, i started a week late and still finished on time. and while the writing is pretty crap, it's the one that i am most proud of. i had no outline, no plan, just a vague idea of a beginning scene, and i ended up with a workable story that was both light and dark, funny and serious, and it was just great. in 2005 i tried a serious urban fantasy (which also had its funny moments), and i didn't enjoy myself nearly as much. last year i thought about consciously doing a comedy, a sort of spoof on the sci-fi genre, and i had fun but things sort of got away from me.

this year i've decided to just sod it all. i'm not going to focus on genre. i'm just going to write, and it will be great.

but yeah, i write humour because i just do. i enjoy it. it's me. i can't say more than that.

i don't really see myself as writing humour. my style is such that it is both funny and serious. i think my strengths are timing and tone. i love writing things that are both serious and funny, that have their moments of drama but keep up the wittiness throughout. and that's how things turn out when i write them organically; in 2004, my first ever nano, i started a week late and still finished on time. and while the writing is pretty crap, it's the one that i am most proud of. i had no outline, no plan, just a vague idea of a beginning scene, and i ended up with a workable story that was both light and dark, funny and serious, and it was just great. in 2005 i tried a serious urban fantasy (which also had its funny moments), and i didn't enjoy myself nearly as much. last year i thought about consciously doing a comedy, a sort of spoof on the sci-fi genre, and i had fun but things sort of got away from me.

this year i've decided to just sod it all. i'm not going to focus on genre. i'm just going to write, and it will be great.

but yeah, i write humour because i just do. i enjoy it. it's me. i can't say more than that.

Usually, when I start out, I'm not intending on writing humor. In fact, I've attempted at least five "serious" novels, all of which have turned into satire/humor. The humor usually takes over at about page 8.

Why? I think it's because I have a weird sense of humor, and see things as funny that most people just don't get. Of course, things that other people find hilarious are the things that I don't get!

Maybe I should start out trying to write a humorous novel so it'll become serious - reverse noveling psychology!

-NoNamer

Why not?

I tend to write humorous, dark novels about meaninglessness and existentialism and other such pleasant things. I don't make them funny to lighten the mood. I make them funny to enhance it. To laugh at pain is more challenging to the reader than to cry.

They'd also be really boring otherwise...

See, I'm one of those weird writers who's kinda caught in between different extremes. That's unfortunate, because the readers and publishers tend to pidgeonhole authors - you can't be literary [i]and[/i] mainstream, you can't write fiction [i]and[/i] essays, and you have have to choose to be serious [i]or[/i] funny.

While I admit it's hard to be all of those things in one piece, I do plan on writing more than one piece, and so choosing between heartbreak and humor has never been something I'm very fond of. My fiction does tend to be serious (even sad), but my essays are usually of the humorous sort. I've written parody films, but never a comedic novel, although humor does enter basically everything I write (even if my stories are sad at times, they're rarely [i]bleak[/i]...if that makes sense).

If I chose to write a memoir, I'm not sure where it would fall. Maybe I'd have to write two. :D

1) I'm incredibly witty (and arrogant), so I'll stick to what i'm best at.
2) I have a very short attention span, so writing that makes me laugh while working on it keeps it focused.

I write the sort of humour I want to read. Unfortunately there's not much of it (Red Dwarf, Hitchhiker's Guide). I don't like obvious humour, I like the really dry stuff which isn't explained so comprehensively it ruins the joke.

Because writing stories about vampires got old.

Yeah, the first Bunnicula was awesome.

"Life is pain" + Schadenfreude = I write humor.

Because no one could possibly take my far-fetched plot seriously? :)

'Cause. Nuf said.

But yeah, I write humour 'cause I like making people laugh. I always have, hence my usually rather dry/sarcastic/smart ass comments about stuff. Though I used to over do the comments alot and got people annoyed, I've calmed down somewhat, but I still have a reputation for being a smart ass. So to solve that problem of people getting annoyed at my comments, I found I can stick them in writing, and people laugh with out getting annoyed at me! It's great. ^_^ Silly people, don't see why they have to get cheesed off at things like. (None of the below people did, but some would)

"I'm reading this book," said one guy.
"Really? I didn't think you'd read that,' said his wife.
"I decided too, it's a nice easy format," said he.
"What? One word after another? Yeah, I've found that's a pretty good format," said I.
The first guy continues talking about the book, while his wife breaks into uncontrollable giggles. "One word after another..."
Guy number one stares at his wife in a why-on-earth-is-wrong-with-you? fashion.
"Did you hear what he said?" his wife asks him. "When you said it's an easy format, he asked, 'What one word after another?' " More giggling.
"Oh..." He shakes his and mutters something about someone being a smart Alex.

What can I say, I like to make people laugh. :P

Well...I like to make fun of things? Parody is a good way to do it.

Also, I got tired of taking my writing too seriously.

I like to think of myself as a serious writer... but humor kinda tags along. LIke on the bandwagon of my fic, I have Drama, Romance, Supernaturalism (mythology) in the back seat while Sci Fi is driving... but Comedy is hanging off the back fender waving at other cars.

I feel other people would enjoy my stories, and I would certainly enjoy them more, if there was humor. There's too much fiction out there (especially sci fi) which tries to stay completely serious... but that isn't how life is.

I write humor because it's the only thing I can write seriously.

No joke.

i write humour because I can't pull off anything else.

Once I was writing a rather dramatic scene where one character has a gun pointed at another. The character with the gun (A) is going through a moral dillema, and is trying to figure out whether they should give this other person (B) a chance or just shoot them. Of course, in the middle of this tension-filled scence, I happen to make B say,"You know, you're being awfully nice for someone trying to shoot me." At this moment, A gets flustered, and the whole thing degrades into random banter, the tension is broken.

That happens all the time. I have something good going on, and then I realize that the whole situation is just hilarious, and I'll put in a joke. At least in humour, that's expected. If you do it in the middle of a horror, people get mad at you.

I write humor because I'm a silly/wacky/random person, so most of the writing ideas that pop into my head are silly, wacky, and random. And I also like to make people laugh, its a great feeling when you can do that to someone.

It's more fun than writing serious things.

I write songs mostly but curiously enough not comedy songs. Not many anyway.

Because if you're writing humor, your Barbarian Hero-in-training can have an enchanted footstool for a pet, and you can present that in an entirely serious manner whilst snickering to yourself as you type.

That, and I find it fairly easy to write dry wit, even if I'm not so good at using it in Real Life.

And because humor is truth, truth is humor. And I find it easier to write than dark, serious, or otherwise non-humorous things.

If you've ever come up with a fantastic put-down about three days after the event, then you'll know exactly why people write humour. On the page we get to be sharp and funny in realtime, which hides the months of editing that went into it:

The red folder at the bottom contains bits of my Nano 2005 and 2006 efforts. Everything above that is polishing, up to the final ARC sitting on top.

I just do it because, and when I read it back a month later it makes me laugh (often more than when I wrote it). And as I can do it, I may as well.
Last year I wrote some 'creative writing' for some English coursework (the only section of it in the whole curriculum, despite it being obviously far more important than having a look at yet another Shakespeare play). And when I was done, to my surprise the teacher read it out to the class, and I started cringing. Hideously politically incorrect, and yet... Everyone was laughing. Asking why I write humour is like asking them why they were laughing. (And heck, some of the lines weren't even close to punchlines... Shut up will you! Listen to the story, stop laughing!)

Because the voices in my head tell me to.

Just like how the voice in my mouth is saying "I'm thirsty" so I have to go get a drink, which is just as well 'cause the voice in my ass is saying "ow" so I was getting up anyway.

Because I can't manage to stay serious for five minutes even when trying to. And nobody takes me seriously when I try to describe my plots to them either. (Okay, admittedly, it probably didn't help much having the main deity of my fantasy universe have a tendency to rain sex toys from the sky whenever anyone mentioned his name.)

My first three (count 'em, three) attempts at NaNo were intended to be serious -- the thought of writing humour never really occurred to me -- and they failed miserably. So, having given up, and having just gone through one of those sucky moments in life, I happened to start reading a parody of The Matrix -- and thinking "I could do way better than this!" The next thought, of course, was "well, go on then!" and I hit the 50,000 target and then some.

Humour was just plain more fun! :-)

My next novel was also a parody, albeit darker. The humour is still there, you've just got to work a little harder to get to it. I think I could write a fully-serious novel (and a friend is demanding that I finish my first couple of efforts) but it's just so much more fun making people laugh. :-)

Algolei:
You must be an extremely noisy person to be around.