Many talented writers have a long and fruitful career writing serious adventure stories, dramas, and romances – all kinds of genre books. These writers may have a terrific sense of humor in person, but never put it in print.
However, not all humor depends on the element of surprise! Something like a toe getting jammed, for instance – are inherently funny, at least, to some people. Farts are endlessly funny to some. Food can be funny: take Dr. Suess’s Green Eggs and Ham. Can you think of others that are funny all by themselves? Let your imagination soar. In humor of this sort, nothing is stupid.
An example of humor taken from my second Wafflehoffer book:-
“These waffles are rock hard,” stated Zack.
“What do you mean?” Maple picked up her fork and stabbed it into her waffle. It flew off her plate and landed on the floor.
“Oh! No! You must have put in cornstarch instead of baking powder,” announce Mama Wafflehoffer.
“Hey, Mama! You don’t need to buy me that Frisbee, I’ve already got one,” joked Zack as he pretended to throw his waffle across the room.
Some humor is fueled by the expected, not the unexpected. Amelia Bedelia, for example, is the character who tends to miss understand what’s happening and to act on her misunderstanding. As we read, we discovered that when she gets mixed up, funny things happen. So if the event starts shaping up in a way that Amelia Bedelia is likely to miss understand we start grinning ahead of time, in anticipation. Whatever mess Amelia Bedelia winds up causing is funnier because of our anticipation.
Humor is deepened when it’s connected to something serious like the example above. Maple was practicing baking waffles because she had entered the waffle baking competition being held at the County Fair. It was a serious matter to Maple. I was able to introduce humor to the story by using her brother Zack, and I have him through dialogue add humor to the story. So let your imagination fly!
