Make it Funny

Do you use humor to delight, entertain or beguile your readers?  

Consider how humor involves the ability to perceive the ludicrous, the comical, and the absurd in human life. Express the ridiculous and preposterous. Add more funny bones to your writing.  

Types of humor:

Irony involves an intended meaning just the opposite of what is expressed.
Parody occurs where the writer imitates a piece of writing for comic effect or in ridicule.

Sarcasm expresses, in the form of irony, an intent to cut or wound.
Satire writing holds up human vices and follies to ridicule or scorn.
Wit uses ingenuity and swift perception to evoke laughter.

Humor writing mingles the writer's point of view with an attitude of humor.  Humor evokes a sudden change. The writer should convey a contrast: the reversing of the normal and abnormal, expected and unexpected.

To develop a strong sense of humor, examine what's funny in yourself.
What quirks, habits, biases and outlooks do you have?  You'll discover a perfect source of material.

Make it funny, keep it funny and don't pass up any opportunity to make it funnier. Humor self-generates. Make your readers laugh. Once they've started, don't let up.

Do remember, humor is an iffy business. What will make you laugh might roll off your readers.  Stay in pursuit of what tickles your funny bone and don't give up.

Have fun writing and playing with these ideas:

l.   What irritates you about others? Exaggerate their shortcomings. Reverse and examine your own dislikes.
2.  What misfortunes have you experienced. Notice the tricks that fate has played recently.  
3.  Your flaws make laughable material. Write a few jokes about yourself.
4.  People laugh at two things: surprise and misfortune. Surprise humor leads in one direction and then takes a turn. Intermingle surprise and misfortune.
5.  Consider ways to use exaggeration or understatement to convey a situation.

Humor brightens inclement weather. Enrich your writing with lines to produce laughter!

Bubble for Ideas

A stack of bricks, a work shirt billowing on the line: 

epics in the making. Each set of doubts a garden                                            

     - Lance Larsen from the poem, "Chancellor of Shadows"

How do you innovate to solve problems? 

In what ways do you generate ideas for your prose or poetry? At times inspiration may appear mysterious. Connection, collection, and collation promote idea development.

Consider the stimuli received each day. Take time to use all your senses as antennas to locate and pick up bits of conversations, body language, scenes unfolding and myriad opportunities for further investigation. 

Think of ways you could use these ideas to solve other issues you face during the day.

Keep a small notebook handy or use a recording device so ideas will land in a safe place. Later you can return to see how they dovetail or grow additional wings.

Become a collector of life's mysteries and events that unfold around you. Stephane Mallarme said, "Poems are not made of ideas, they are made of words. An idea, a possibility, may be in my head - or in the world - for hours or years, with nothing coming of it. Then one day, maybe taking a shower or a walk or driving, into my mind or mouth come a few words in a certain order, or maybe not even words, maybe a shape of grammar, sentence-sound: And then a poem begins, I hope."

Keep your antennae focusing on an idea hunt. No matter where you find yourself you can attract notions. Take an hour to visit a park, coffee shop or other place where many people gather. 

Watch body language, sounds and add scents and tastes. Observe the seasons and their subtleties. Notice the animals that populate your days.

Return to a problem or situation that perplexes. Think of three ways to solve it with humor or playfulness.

Look up and observe details others miss. If you begin this observation, a habit will form and you'll always attract bubbles of ideas. 

Let your ideas-in-training percolate. They will arise when you least expect them.  You will transform them when most needed. 

How will you bubble for ideas today?

Look UP

The elephants in my mind have left their flannel pajamas on too long this morning.  I have to question what's going on. How will one elephant break from the herd and discover the savanah of blue for its romping pleasure?

Scents of a new day begin with the mockingbird's hip hop song. They fling me into moments in movement. Morning neck aches caused  by a hard pillow or disrupted sleep, dissolve. I fill my lungs and begin my journey.

It's all right to begin in cranky because I know the breeze on my arms and energy bounding from each stride will bring a new consciousness.  Mystery will discover me around the next turn in the sidewalk.  I push to understand the issues my body suggests and surge ahead to break beyond the frustration.

I help a worm to a grass area and avoid stepping on a bee. A Black Phoebe will not wait for a close up photo. Faces of car drivers way above the speed limit or distracted by cell phones concern me.  Maybe my smile will brighten their day before they run into me because of their lack of focus?

Beyond the morning's congestion, I fly free, accumulating words as I go.