That's Not Funny

There was recently a long review of my book done by an occasional commenter here on the blog. Scaea wrestled with some things and it was a positive review overall. It was actually kind of like being back in a writing workshop; the criticism was useful.

The only part I can solidly take issue with is the bit about humor. It’s not that I disagree with the suggestion of using humor, nor any of the assertions concerning humor’s abilities to sneak past people’s defenses.

It’s that I suck at it.

I’m good with funny anecdotes delivered in person, but that’s just because I can be very animated and rely heavily on anger-comedy and self-deprecation (think George Carlin or Lewis Black with a bit of Woody Allen - except I’m nowhere near as funny as any of those guys). Plus, in person, I don’t use humor to get past other people’s defenses, I use it as a defense. That doesn’t translate well to the written page.

So far, if there’s been humor in my fiction, it’s been accidental, which is the worst kind. That doesn’t mean I haven’t tried. I’ve tried to write humor. I used to be a big fan of Tom Robbins and tried, for a while, to imitate his style, but it was horribly unsuccessful. I’ve even tried writing a play or two that was intended to be a comedy. It sucked.

Essentially, it’s a tremendous difficulty to try to be funny on the page, and an effort that’s 98% doomed. I simply don’t imagine that way - if that makes sense.