Don't You Hate Book Tours?

“The trick to pulling a rabbit from a hat is to have the rabbit already in there.”

 – Mark Twain

I'm not here today. The A2Z has begun and I am the first poster on deck at the Really Real Housewives Click here to visit)! 

But have no fear...I left you in the very best of hands!

Welcome Roland to the blog!!!

Roland Yeomans here:

This is not an April Fool’s Day post in my “Don’t You Hate Book Tours?” Book Tour.

Yet it is.  It is about humor in your writing and in mine.

Why should we be concerned at all about humor when writing our novels?

What are the bits of dialogue you repeat to friends after seeing a movie that wowed you?  The funny parts.

They stick in the minds of your readers like cockle-burrs and become internet chatter that grows into that all-important Word of Mouth.

Humor also teaches you crucial writing lessons.

Writing humor teaches you a great deal about vital prose skills such as pacing and artful word choices that casts the mood you wish in your tale.

Even in terrible situations, people joke with one another or see something funny – be in combat or the ER for a few days and see for yourself.

A few moments of humor peppered throughout your novel can make your characters and situations seem more realistic and deepen your readers’ connections with them.

You should develop as many skills as possible because you can never be certain when you might need to switch gears in order to punch up a scene.

Comedy can disarm the reader.

This can be useful for a number of reasons.

It may leave the reader or the characters off guard and not expecting a sudden injection of tension or fear. It may allow a writer to introduce an uncomfortable subject.

Writing humor successfully relies on things like timing, vocabulary, tone and even the length of sentences. It may take more effort than any other type of writing, but it is crucial that it look effortless.

USE YOUR OWN MATERIAL:

 If you say something funny or make a laughable slip of the tongue, make a note of it, and see if you can use it in something you’re working on.

JUXTAPOSE TWO UNEXPECTED THINGS:

This can be absurd or it can simply produce a funny contrast.

For example, using an elevated tone to describe an event like a mud-wrestling contest might be funny.

USE THE RULE OF THREE:

 This is about the rhythm of our language.

The idea is to establish a pattern in the reader’s mind and then throw the pattern off. Three is used because it is the minimal number possible to establish this pattern.

“The moment was unforgettable – the loveliness of the pale redhead in front of me, the longing for me in her vampire eyes, and the diarrhea in my pants.”

DELIVERY IS EVERYTHING:

Pay attention to elements such as the setup, the word choice and the payoff.

Jokes and other humorous moments will need to be revised more than once just like any other aspect of your novel.

 Experiment with different ways of writing your humorous scene to see if things like shorter or longer sentences or changes in tone affect how it comes across.

HUMOR in THE NOT-SO-INNOCENTS ABROAD:

Having Mark Twain in my Steampunk novel, how could I not have humor in it?

Whether he is being hung over a pit of sulfuric acid, riding to a death-trap surrounded by deadly Comanche, or trying on a pair of poisoned kid gloves to impress a beautiful vampire, Mark Twain makes you laugh despite the deadliness.

At the end of the novel, even Horace Greely gets into the act and becomes unintentionally funny during the worst train robbery in history.

 ***

AN EXAMPLE:

Sammy Clemens slapped me on the shoulder. “Captain Sam, don’t be so down.  Why in no time a’tall Georgia will be all re-people-ated.”

Eleven year old Nikola Tesla sighed, “Sir, that is repopulated.”

Sammy bristled, “Young man, who is the native born Amurican, and who is the immigrant here?”

“You are native born, sir, but it is still repopulated.”

Sammy turned to Meilori, whose memory stretched back farther than the flow of blood through Eve’s veins.  “See, Lady Meilori?  This is the gratitude of the immigrant.”

Slanted eyes, which had viewed the construction of the Sphinx, sparkled, “To me and the race I rule, you humans are all immigrants.”

Sammy snorted, “Oh, sure, turn philosopher on me.  But you will recall what happened to old So-crates.” 

(He’d turned the last syllable into the word for a wooden box.)

“Sir, his name is pronounced …” began little Nikola but Sammy covered the boy’s lips with his fingers.

Meilori’s eyebrow arched dangerously, “I prefer my hand to take my enemies’ lives and not my own.”

Sammy bent down to Nikola.  “And that, my lad, is why us single males should stay single!”

***

So will you take a chance on laughter and go to my book’s Amazon page?

http://www.amazon.com/dp/1530302722/

Cost of the adventure of a lifetime and laughter?  Only $9.99!

More on Mark Twain:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMtBPa7hpsA

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Thanks to our hosts Lexa, L.G, and Tonja Drecker for this weekly good things check in! 

My good thing of the week!
Today is my first column for an online magazine.
(It's a paying gig! Like Tonja Drecker- I'm earning me some ice cream.)

Check it out HERE!