Ten tips for writing Comedy
by
Heide Goody and Iain M Grant
We have been writing comedy together for over six years now,
and we’ve learned a lot about technique in that time. In this guest post we
wanted to distil some of the most important lessons, so here are our top ten
tips for writing comedy:
1. Challenge your characters. Any kind of conflict can drive
comedy, but you need to create a mixture of characters and situation that will
drive lots of conflict. This is why “fish out of water” works well for comedy.
2. Have an agent of chaos. Somewhat related to the previous
point, it can be very helpful if your cast of characters includes someone who
can be relied upon to always do the
thing that is unthinkably bad. In A Spell
in the Country, one of our witches has an invisible imp, who is an agent of
chaos.
3. Your first idea is almost certainly not your best idea.
If you think of something funny, whether it’s a situation or a joke, you can
usually stretch it. If you make it more extreme you can steer clear of cliché
and make something that will genuinely startle your reader. For example, when
the witches in A Spell in the Country
embark upon their training, they are set a task to find an amulet. We wanted
one set of witches to fail the task, by bringing back the wrong thing. They
might have brought back a stone, a plant or even a cow pat and it would have
been funny. Instead they go through a set of thought processes that ends up
with them bringing back a live cow.
4. Specifics are funnier. Whenever you can, name specifics.
Gorgonzola is funnier than cheese. Hobnobs are funnier than biscuits. Antique
Wedgewood is funnier than crockery.
5. Words containing the letter “k” have a pleasing, often
amusing sound: Knickerbocker Glory, spanking, Kettering.
6. Compress the timescale. This can drive the narrative by
putting extra pressure on your characters. If your character has to spend a
million pounds, that might be a tough challenge, with lots of comedic
opportunities. If they have to spend it by the end of the day then it pushes
them even harder. What will they do in their desperation?
7. Compress the setting. If your characters have plenty of
conflict between them (and they should, if you’ve created a good cast of
characters) then forcing them to be close together will heighten the conflict.
If they hate each other and want to be apart, put them in a trapped lift
together. This was one of the reasons that we put our witches into an isolated
country house for A Spell in the Country.
8. Outlandish similes can be fun. Let’s say you want to
describe an untidy sandpit. Your first thought might be to say that it’s
scattered with old toys. Why not go further? The sandpit looked like an open grave for the victims of a serial
killer with a penchant for Barbies. You can probably think of something
better if you let your mind run wild for a moment.
9. Consider funny combinations to replace or embellish
swearing. The tweets directed at Donald Trump from (primarily) Scotland were a
revelation. The very best of them combined some relatively innocuous words into
spectacular new ways of swearing. See cockwomble, jizztrumpet and shitgibbon.
10. Watch sitcoms. Obviously, it’s enjoyable, but if you
deconstruct some of the jokes and scenarios you will find that they inspire
ways that you can have fun with your own characters.
Introducing…
A Spell in the
Country
“Dee is a Good Witch but she wonders if she could be a better witch.
She wonders if there’s more to life than Disney movie marathons, eating a whole box of chocolates for dinner and brewing up potions in her bathtub. So when she’s offered a chance to go on a personal development course in the English countryside, she packs her bags, says goodbye to the Shelter for Unloved Animals charity shop and sets a course for self-improvement.
She wonders if there’s more to life than Disney movie marathons, eating a whole box of chocolates for dinner and brewing up potions in her bathtub. So when she’s offered a chance to go on a personal development course in the English countryside, she packs her bags, says goodbye to the Shelter for Unloved Animals charity shop and sets a course for self-improvement.
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Caroline isn’t just a Good Witch, she’s a fricking awesome witch.
She likes to find the easy path through life: what her good looks can’t get for her, a few magic charms can. But she’s bored of being a waitress and needs something different in her life. So when a one night stand offers her a place on an all-expenses-paid residential course in a big old country house, she figures she’s got nothing to lose.
Jenny is a Wicked Witch. She just wishes she wasn’t.
On her fifteenth birthday, she got her first wart, her own imp and a Celine Dion CD. She still has the imp. She also has a barely controllable urge to eat human children which is socially awkward to say the least and not made any easier when a teenager on the run turns to her for help. With gangsters and bent cops on their trail, Jenny needs to find a place outside the city where they can lay low for a while.
For very different reasons, three very different witches end up on the same training course and land in a whole lot of trouble when they discover that there’s a reason why their free country break sounds too good to be true. Foul-mouthed imps, wererats, naked gardeners, tree monsters, ghosts and stampeding donkeys abound in a tale about discovering your inner witch.”
About the authors:
Heide Goody is the stupid one in the writing partnership and
Iain Grant is the sensible one. Together, they are the authors of seven novels,
two short story collections and a novella.
The ‘Clovenhoof’
series (in which Satan loses his job and has to move to Birmingham) has
recently been optioned by a Hollywood production company. Their latest novel, Oddjobs 2: this time it’s personnel, was
published in August 2017.
Heide and Iain are both married, but not to each other.
Prizes!!!!
Giveaway – Win a Witch's Pamper Package (Open
Internationally)
The package, worth
over £100 contains…
·
A lacy gothic bracelet
·
A witch's hat fascinator
·
A pair of green and black stripy tights
·
A Yankee candle in "Forbidden
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·
A set of wand-shaped makeup brushes
·
A gothic notebook (for spells!)
·
A bookmark featuring a squashed witch
(with just the legs sticking out!)
·
A gemstone ring
·
A gorgeous coffin-shaped vegan
eyeshadow palette from Lunatick Cosmetic labs (with a bat-shaped mirror!)
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