For our third Elemental Humor episode Victoria Schwab joins us as we field questions taken from our audience at Phoenix Comic-Con. Here are the questions:
- How do you add humor to a serious story without breaking the tension?
- How do I move beyond the “Dad jokes” and into properly funny writing?
- When is humor necessary in horror?
- Where is the line between a comedic book, and a book that uses humor as a subgenre.
- How do you make dialog sound natural, while still sounding funny?
Credits: this episode was recorded live at Phoenix Comic Con by Jeff Cools, and mastered by Alex Jackson
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 22:03 — 15.2MB)
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Write a joke, and have each of your characters tell that joke. Find a way for them to tell that joke “in character,” in their style.
A Darker Shade of Magic, by V.E. Schwab
Hi! Not related to this episode (I’m sure it’s awesome as always), but lately I’m having trouble to access Writing Excuses. It has been going down for hours. I’ve already confirmed with my ISP it’s not them, and discovered that the site goes down in a lot of places outside the US at once.
Thank you!
I feel so smart; I was thinking about how ‘dad jokes’ can work in stories depending on context about a minute before they brought it up. :)
Also, @Dan, my husband (an incorrigible punster) says he knew he was getting the hang of Portugese while in Brazil because he started making puns. And they thought he was getting it wrong too.
You’ve got questions? The funny foursome plus one (Victoria Schwab!) have got answers! Humor in dramatic scenes, humor and horror, humor in dialogue… even humor and dad jokes! All kinds of humor! So, if you were waiting for the transcript — it’s now up in the archives and over here
http://wetranscripts.livejournal.com/119620.html