What would life be without laughter and humor? Sad and dry I tell you! Humor allows us to enjoy life, to take it easy when things are tough, to share great memories with loved ones, and to push on gracefully with life! It makes the world go round.
As a writer, incorporating humor into your work is an essential element in entertaining and keeping your readers coming back for more. We share stories of pain and heartache, losses and wins, successes and failures, but all these stories can be told with a dash of humor to make them more appealing. Okay, unless you’re struggling with controlling a running stomach, which calls for some serious clenching and self-awareness, I don’t see why you wouldn’t want to burst out into laughter every other minute. Life is too short guys!
You will notice that incorporating humor in your stories resonates really well with the reader. They are able to understand and appreciate your writing and help you amass an audience. For you to be great at being funny, you must learn to be yourself, totally, no inhibitions and definitely, no self-criticism as it forms doubt, which then limits you from reaching your ‘funny potential.’ Be free-thinking and let it flow, in turn, you will be able to carve out a tone for yourself that your reader will resonate to. Also, you can start off by sharing your own humorous stories, be self-deprecating or share a situation that happened to you in a funny way.
Humor is known to break the tension in many serious or tense situations, the same applies in writing. The use of humor can soften or lighten up a story and be more impactful to your reader. If a writer is writing about a serious topic or situation, adding a little humor will make it more fun to read, more relatable and automatically breaks the ‘boredom’ of reading an all serious article. This way, the writer will be able to engage the reader effectively.
Being funny in your writing helps with the 3 R’s; respect, remembrance, and reward. When you effectively entertain your readers, you earn yourself a title for being able to make your audience laugh, as it is no walk in the park. People will remember you and your work more easily as you will already have their attention. Through this, you will be rewarded through recognition and more importantly, financially. I mean, we can’t pay our bills with exposure!
Humor writers are a sort-after bunch in today’s commercial world as ‘being funny’ sells. Many companies incorporate humor in their adverts and promotions for brands, the big guys who lead huge corporates, brands, and even countries all need a touch of humor to make them more human to their audience, hence the need for writers. TV shows all need writers who are clever, witty and funny. Being humorous, therefore, is a great way to make your money.
In writing, you can keep your reader hooked to a character just by being humorous. Describing your character in a funny way will ensure that they are memorable and ring true to life. This also helps your reader identify with the character in a positive light. On the contrary, if you want to portray a character as a bad guy, then strip them of all humor.
Being consistent in your writing helps a great deal as it ensures enough readability and control. But apart from being consistent, you need to know just the right amount of humor to use; too little might go unnoticed therefore not impactful, while too much may distract the reader from your intended message or become off-putting.
Also, understanding the right kind of humor and where to place it will greatly help with your writing. Exploring more of irony, sarcasm, and puns, dark and dry humor all helps a great deal. Learning how to exaggerate and surprise in a funny way will make the reader more interested and help your writing flow. For humor inspiration, be observant in your surroundings helps in writing topical humor, listen more attentively, watch more thoughtfully and reader more keenly. This will help you trigger your funny bone and get you going.
In conclusion, being funny in your writing will help you become better in storytelling, carve out your own tone and voice, engage your readers and set them at ease, and most importantly help you make that mullah!!
“I like people who make me laugh. I honestly think that laughing is the thing I like the most. It cures a multitude of ills. It’s probably the most important thing in a person.” Audrey Hepburn