Congrats are in order for guest poster Anna Staniszewski as her middle grade adventure My Epic Fairy Tale Fail releases today! Happy book b-day and welcome to the Observation Desk.
Breaking Down Funny Dialogue
If you think about where we find humor in real life, you’ll notice that a lot of it comes through in conversation. When we recap real-life events to friends, for example, we often highlight not only what people did, but what they said, what we said, and what we would have said (if we weren’t such wimps).
It makes sense that, given how much time we spend talking to, about, and at each other, we’d see a reflection of that in novels. So how does knowing this help with writing funny dialogue?
Let’s break it down based on what I said above.
What people say:
You can help your characters’ personalities shine through by showing us how they react verbally to the situations you put them in. The more outrageous their reactions, the more potential for humor. If you find a character seems to be hanging back in a scene, try to get them to chime in more. The result might surprise you.
What people don’t say:
On the other hand, we can learn quite a bit about characters by what they don’t say. If Grandpa keeps insisting that he’s a happy duck—while he’s wringing a duck’s neck—we know there’s more going on than he’s admitting. And if the characters are saying one thing and doing the exact opposite, that can be downright hilarious.
What people wish they could say:
You know when you’re too polite or too chicken to speak your mind? Well, there’s good news. Characters aren’t in control of their editing mechanisms; you are. You can make your characters say anything you want! Maybe a normal person would be too afraid to speak up in a particular scenario, but your characters shouldn’t be too normal. They should be interesting, and interesting people say and do things the rest of us might not.
So when it comes to funny dialogue, by all means, use real life examples to help you make dialogue feel authentic. But remember that you’re not writing about real life; you’re writing about the appearance of real life, which means that the rules of the real world don’t necessarily apply.
My Epic Fairy Tale Fail and the first book in the series, My Very Unfairy Tale Life, are available in paperback and ebook on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Powell’s, and other book retailers.
About the Author:
Born in Poland and raised in the United States, Anna Staniszewski grew up loving stories in both Polish and English. She was named the 2006-2007 Writer-in-Residence at the Boston Public Library and a winner of the 2009 PEN New England Susan P. Bloom Discovery Award. Currently, Anna lives outside of Boston, Mass. with her husband and their adopted black Labrador, Emma. When she’s not writing, Anna spends her time teaching, reading, and challenging unicorns to games of hopscotch. You can visit her at www.annastan.com.
Thank you so much for letting me stop by!
Glad to have you, Anna. Great advice here on writing funny dialogue. Happy book b-day!
Great point! I seriously suck at funny so this is super helpful! (Apparently my skills are in making people cry–or so I’ve been told–who knows what that says about me…)
Well, I don’t know about you sucking at funny, but crying…well, yeah…your stories do evoke that! We all have out strengths. 🙂
Great observations! I love funny dialogue and I wish it would get more attention (an academy award for Best Picture going to a comedy, for example!).
Very true, Ann. Funny is often harder to do than drama. I especially like Anna’s tip about paying attention to what isn’t being said or done.
Hello Anna and Katie, I read about your post from the blueboards and thought I’d drop by. Funny dialogues are wonderful. And I always believe that the things our characters don’t say are some of the best things they have. Have a great weekend ~
Claudine
Hi, Claudine. Thanks for stopping by. I totally agree about the things that characters don’t say hold so much potential for humor.