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The Underrated Art of Comedy Writing

Of all the genres you can make an attempt at, humor can be among the most intimidating for many writers. It's tough enough in many cases trying to come up with something readable without taking on the added burden of trying to make people laugh in the process.

Even if it's tricky for many writers to use, humor is an underrated tool that can help add a little extra flavor to both fiction and nonfiction projects. Otherwise, some lucky individuals can even end up finding work just writing humorous content for publications, cable and network TV, or even writing for other comedians.

Along with knowing how to use humor, it can be even more important to know when to use it. At times it may not be appropriate, depending on what your subject matter is. But otherwise it's a great way to add a more human and likeable element to your character(s) while also making the story a more enjoyable experience for the reader.

How you go about adding humor to your work is up to you entirely. You need to take your own writing style into account along with the tastes of your readers. If the idea of going for a laugh or two once in a while intrigues you, here are a few tips to consider.

Whether you're doing a fiction or a non-fiction piece, a humorous situation cannot come off as forced. In other words, let the gag fit naturally into the story and its dialogue. If it seems out of place with the characters or the story, chances are it is and should therefore be avoided.

Another crucial point to remember is the importance of how you deliver a joke. The best comedians can fire jokes off with the speed and accuracy of bullets. That's not usually your objective as a writer, but your words are likely to be funnier with a certain zing to them. You'll have a better chance to accomplish this if you remember to keep your word selection especially streamlined.

If you're trying your hand at comedy writing, look over your material several times and remove any unnecessary words, and give plenty of thought about whether the longer words have shorter counterparts that can be used instead. Don't go for long, clunky sounding words—even an unnecessary syllable or two can detract from the quality of your presentation. You might have the funniest idea in the world, but a punchline loses most of its effectiveness if people have to stumble over a sentence or start reading it again. That doesn't mean there's no room for subtle humor that takes a moment to get. You just have to be able to know the difference between that and mere choppiness. Also be careful to keep in mind another occasionally inexplicable phenomenon in comedy writing: The notion that some words are funnier than others and should therefore be favored. For example, "duck" or "chicken" just sound funnier for some reason than "dog" or "cat."

Of course, the hardest part about writing humor and jokes is probably coming up with subject matter in the first place. This can seem like a forbidding task, but it really doesn't have to be. As is the case with most other aspects of writing, your own daily life can be your best source of material—or the daily news for that matter. One resource you could find especially helpful if you want to develop your comedy writing skills is Melvin Helitzer's Comedy Writing Secrets, from Writers Digest Books.

For one of my own job duties (one of many), I have to write six or seven jokes every Friday, all of them based on things that happened in the world of politics that week. Some weeks the jokes practically jump from the headlines, but other times I'm left with headlines about arcane Senate votes to try to salvage some measure of humor from. Either way, I've managed to do it just about every Friday since the fall of 1995, suggesting that humor can potentially be found in anything. Some of the jokes are undeniably total groaners, but practice seems to have helped out over the years. The importance of writing down one's ideas immediately also can't be stressed enough when it comes to humor, for obvious reasons.

In closing, don't get discouraged if you'd really like to write something funny but haven't been able to do it yet - Good ideas can take a long time to come and they can take even longer to properly develop. If you really get stuck, remember this is one genre where it can also be especially helpful to find a writing partner who's also interested in comedy writing. You might find it easier to develop ideas and you'll probably find out faster if your ideas are really funny.

Over the last few years, another writer and I have gotten together to write what is now a collection of dozens of comedy sketches. We're thinking about shopping them around soon, guided by the unfailing conviction that we couldn't possibly do any worse than those current TV sitcom writers. And besides, a lot of those guys get six-figure salaries. Whether its those skits or my weekly political jokes, I'll be the first to admit that some of my gags can be awful, but that's the nature of comedy and you can never let it get you down. Remember that it's a lot like baseball. Even the sluggers are only on base a third of the time.

By Bill La Forme, a senior editor for American Book Publishing.