Writing Humor One Edit At A Time
Writing well is a learning process. And when it’s about humor, it’s a fun learning process. For readers out there who are curious about the editing part of the process I’ve been using (hi Mom!) here you go...
Click here to read the list of everything I entered in Humor Power’s February humor contest.
Want more useful information? Go over to the Humor Power blog. Be sure to sign up for their free eZine on this Humor Power page!
- Think stuff up. Write stuff down. Ignore quality.
- Let them sit overnight or overweek. Don’t think about them. Stop it.
- Re-read. Toss the yuck but keep what gives you yuck-yucks. For better comedic impact, shorten the keepers to the least number of words.
- Read them aloud to someone else. Choose a person who won’t laugh out of politeness but who is capable of laughter.
- Cry.
- Mope. Complain that people don’t get your work.
- Ask your enemy, er, listener, why they don’t agree with your faves. Never assume. When you hear, “It's just not funny” ask why. Is it the concept, wording, or impeding thoughts of their upcoming surgical procedure?
- Resolve to improve. Keep the ones that got a laugh. If you get no laughs, keep those that prompted the best facial expression or the least rude remark. Maybe the dog wagged her tail at one. Take that. Some of your favorites didn’t make the cut. They’re keepers, well, one or two anyway. Throw out the rest. Ouch.
- Shorten the keepers more. Use better words.
- Repeat steps 4–8 until listener’s eyes glaze over.
- You’re done. Send ’em off.
- Notice 52 imperfections you could fix if you hadn’t sent them off already, you nut.
Click here to read the list of everything I entered in Humor Power’s February humor contest.
Want more useful information? Go over to the Humor Power blog. Be sure to sign up for their free eZine on this Humor Power page!
Comments
Is it ok if i go back later and edit
the post and pretend that was the original?
And now for the part where I spout off...
Websites are works in progress, even the dead sites. This is different from a printed piece, where to fix an error once it's printed means reprinting and sending it out to readers, again. This is embarrassing, expensive, and all-around unfun.
Depending on what blogging tool you use (I use Google's Blogger), you could change the date on your post to reflect when it was changed. But doing so can also alter the permanent link to the blog posting. (I've learned to refrain from it.) Now if there was an "last edited on" date I would totally use that. (Listening, software engineers and usability specialists?)
It's okay to edit your own work as often as you like. However, should you make substantial blog edits after someone has commented on it, be polite and say so. That happened to me recently. I realized that a reader had taken the time to comment on my posting only after I edited away what they were commenting on. Oops. So I commented back my error. (You can find it at the bottom of http://smallandbig.blogspot.com/2007/02/my-joke-collection-11.html)
If you're the New York Times or something, you've got to treat your work differently. You've got a paying audience. Typos should always be fixed. But rewording and the like, that's what good editors get paid to do—fix stuff before it causes trouble.
Wow, but I can keep going. Hope it's useful in some way.
Deborah