By
R.J. Crayton
Whatever genre people
write in, there has to be a touch of comedy somewhere in the manuscript. Why?
Because in real life, people try to make things funny. They do it because
that’s their personality, or to break the tension, or to entice a lover, or
because that’s what the situation calls for. Every person you have ever met has
told a joke and had someone laugh at it. The computer nerd whose jargon
everyone else ignores has friends who will laugh hysterically at some
jargon-filled joke very few would find funny.
So, if you want to
infuse humor into your books in appropriate places but don’t feel you’re
particularly humorous, don’t worry. There are a few things you can do to try to
see the humorous side of things.
1. Try to look at things in a different light. The best comedy
often comes from looking at things from a fresh perspective. My six-year-old
daughter, for some reason, was looking at the milk carton, and turns to me with
a look of utter horror on her face. “Mom, why is it only one percent milk? What
is the rest of it?” Yikes. She’d be
right if the one percent referred to the milk content, not the milk fat
content. (Sadly, in a bad mommy moment, I laughed hysterically at her question,
causing her to look at me like I'd been conspiring to feed her 99 percent bat
sweat for many years.) Regardless, a fresh look at something can often provide
a wealth of comedy.
