Nameback
Troubadour
How do you go about writing comic relief characters--or do you even have any?
I'm writing a chapter now with three characters that I planned on as being comic relief. Their story is still important to the world and the plot; they're not irrelevant, so the reader still gets movement through the story while they're on-page. But I did feel that a little levity would be a good break after several chapters of weighty realizations, bloodshed, and internal conflict.
However, comedy is hard. So hard, at least for me, that I am in fact wondering whether or not to abandon the whole enterprise. Perhaps it's better to have no comic relief than comic relief that isn't funny enough. I also feel like straight prose is one of the more difficult ways to communicate humor, since you lack the tools of facial expressions, tone of voice, rhythm, etc. I mean, you can describe those things, but it's not really the same. It's not that prose can't be funny, but that one has to be especially artful to make it funny, and be conscious of how to be funny within the medium.
Before I give up, however, I am going to try rewriting my chapter, and I'm thinking of downloading a few books onto my kindle that I remember being funny, such as Catch-22, Portnoy's Complaint, and many of Terry Pratchett's books. Hopefully I can pick up a few tricks from those authors.
Anyway, what are your rules for comedy in your writing? Do you have any? Any tricks or processes that you've learned make writing comedy easier?
I'm writing a chapter now with three characters that I planned on as being comic relief. Their story is still important to the world and the plot; they're not irrelevant, so the reader still gets movement through the story while they're on-page. But I did feel that a little levity would be a good break after several chapters of weighty realizations, bloodshed, and internal conflict.
However, comedy is hard. So hard, at least for me, that I am in fact wondering whether or not to abandon the whole enterprise. Perhaps it's better to have no comic relief than comic relief that isn't funny enough. I also feel like straight prose is one of the more difficult ways to communicate humor, since you lack the tools of facial expressions, tone of voice, rhythm, etc. I mean, you can describe those things, but it's not really the same. It's not that prose can't be funny, but that one has to be especially artful to make it funny, and be conscious of how to be funny within the medium.
Before I give up, however, I am going to try rewriting my chapter, and I'm thinking of downloading a few books onto my kindle that I remember being funny, such as Catch-22, Portnoy's Complaint, and many of Terry Pratchett's books. Hopefully I can pick up a few tricks from those authors.
Anyway, what are your rules for comedy in your writing? Do you have any? Any tricks or processes that you've learned make writing comedy easier?