And I didn’t sit down intending to write this funny book. Really I didn’t. It was just the voice that came to me. And the character is a riot, I hope I have as much fun with the next one.

Dennie, I think a lot of people use black humor to keep from falling apart in tough situations. It’s a very normal defense mechanism. {Hugs} on your loss.
Alesia

Like the commercial for batteries – that they show in a hearing aid – that is not closed caption – just me, that’s funny.

I find that I have to make jokes to keep sane – at the Grandfather’s funeral (devestatingly sad) I walked off on my own a few times to make cracks that would have had my mother backhanding me had she heard – needed to stay sane!

Well, that’s the important part!!:grin:
Alesia

I still get the royalty checks, though.

Karen, I love reviewers and would never say anything bad about any of them (in any public forum . . . ).
>>Don’t know about anyone else who writes funny, but the good stuff rarely appears in the first draft, when I’m all uptight and freaked about just getting words — ANY words — on the page to begin with. Often it’s not until I get past that stage do I loosen up enough to hear the humor in the scene

This is fascinating to me, because my humor has to flow intrinsically and organically with the scene, or it sounds forced. It’s all back to that subjectivity, I think – there are as many ways to *write* humor as there are to *appreciate* it!

Mary Stella, clearly I need to visit your blog!!
Alesia

Oh good. That’s what I shoot for often in my blog. I go on the theory that if it entertains me to write an offbeat take on a situation or event (fights with land crabs, visits to dermatologist, while chin hair) then it will be more entertaining for someone else to read.

What’s ever harder to explain is that somedays, the weird stuff just isn’t there. Or if it is, it ain’t sharing. Don’t know about anyone else who writes funny, but the good stuff rarely appears in the first draft, when I’m all uptight and freaked about just getting words — ANY words — on the page to begin with. Often it’s not until I get past that stage do I loosen up enough to hear the humor in the scene. Or rather, when the characters turn to me and go, “You don’t seriously expect us to spout this drivel, do you?”

And a definite head nod on juxtaposing pain and humor, keeping readers on that emotional rollercoaster. That what keeps serious-issued stories from becoming maudlin and rescues lighter-hearted stories from the fluff-o-sphere.

But it’s so true that humor is subjective. There’s nothing like getting reviews for the same book, one of which cites the books as “hysterically funny,” the other of which says, “The book wasn’t really funny, although there were one or two humorous moments.”

Now that’s funny.