COMEDY GOLD:
1. This is for me the big one – comedy is not a genre. It is a style of storytelling. What do I mean by that? You need to, first and foremost, tell a story and it being funny comes down to how you tell it. Where you can go wrong is trying to be funny for the sake of it. If you ever find yourself putting a character into a room for the sole reason that you’ve thought of a joke that can happen when they’re in there – get them out of there fast. Then barricade the door, push them out the nearest window and set the whole house on fire. You’re telling a story; you’re not telling a series of jokes. Narrative integrity matters.
2. Comedy can be camouflage. All genres of story but particularly crime or thriller, are based on what information you tell the reader and when you do so. We’ve all spotted the obvious signpost in a book that puts a big metaphorically flashing neon sign over a character’s head saying KILLER or, worse still, had someone appear out of nowhere at the end and being announced as the convenient culprit. Great writers show us the villain and then bamboozle us, so we’re somehow still surprised by the truth. The good news is comedy is an excellent way of telling someone something without telling them. If you get it right, one of those cream pies might look like it existed purely for the sake of the punchline, but you can secrete within it the brick that will hit the reader smack in the mush during the finale.
3. Things in threes are funnier. They just are.
4. No violence is funnier than a well-placed boot in the gonads. Limit yourself to one per book at most. They are a seasoning, not a core ingredient.
5. Comedy comes from character. We’ve all heard that phrase but what does it actually mean? For me, it means that a line is funny primarily because of who is saying it. If you take a piece of dialogue and you can give it to any of your characters, then something is wrong. You need to make sure they each have a distinct voice and that point where their individual world views collide, is where the comedy happens.
6. Learn when not to be funny. If you’re telling the story right, the reader should care about the characters. If they’re in danger, don’t worry about being funny. Again, tell the story, don’t try and crack the joke. 7. Endings are hard – but a great one is always worthwhile. Remember that guy who threw up on me? Well, I took that freely given sample of his DNA and it turns out it was him who killed the captain. Alright, it wasn’t but if it had been, that would have been a great way to prove tip number two.