MONDAY MUSINGS—LAUGHTER AND HARD TIMES

Laughter isn't just the best medicine -- it's life's saving grace.

MONDAY'S MUSINGS: Laughter Is Good For You

My sense of ridiculous is easily amused these days. I look for things that make me laugh whether its unusual stories, books, or videos.

This past week I got lots of giggles out of the story of the idea of walking out your backdoor because you’ve heard an unusual bellow and of course you’ve looked in the livingroom and see, no, it isn’t hubs—he’s sitting peacefully in his recliner. So you walk outside to investigate and find an elk. Problem is this elk isn’t at all where you expect it to be nor is she in the condition you expect an elk to be. She’s drunk and she’s up in your apple tree. As in stuck, can’t get up or down. Can you just imagine standing there trying to take that picture in from your back porch? Obviously, your eyes are lying, because there can’t possibly be an elk in a tree!  Try calling that one in to the fire department used to rescuing kids or cats from trees—unless you’re in Sweden where they’re used to strange antics by the local elk that munch fermented apples every fall.

Book blurb

Then there is the book (Judi Fennell’s Genie Knows Best) I just finished reading. Now, you expect some unusual antics when there is a genie involved. Hey, I remember I Dream of Jeanie and she did some really bizarre things (and didn’t you just love the reaction from Larry Hagman and his best friend to those happenings?). But the magical creatures in this book boggle the mind. First off, Aladdin and Abu have nothing on this genie and his fennec fox (who truly cracks me up with his activities). Then there is the Russian nesting doll sort of leprechauns popping out everywhere. No wonder the heroine is wondering if she’s having a nervous breakdown or having a psychotic episode. I had to read that passage twice and cackled each time. Then there are the arguing Dragon couple which both cracked me up and made me wish for duct tape. What really had me rolling was the mental picture of a baby dragon  with Ginsu knife teeth latching onto the villains finger as he kidnaps it. The whole sequence is hilarious as is picturing the villain trying to shake off a baby dragon dangling from his finger. Four star read! No one writes magic and mayhem and fun comedic chaos like Judi Fennell!

A video that made me laugh out loud was Julie Ann Long’s comments on the last 72 hours of insanity meeting her writing deadlines—and the *supplies* required to meet them (anyone else channel Joan Wilder in Romancing The Stone?).


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2GkDNG1GKc&list=FLuRs-CkuctcA4iKBpwRhWPg&index=8

Laughter is good for you and a medicine I’ve been indulging in a lot of late. As my mind clears from the depressive fog and I can contemplate writing again, I think of ways to employ some of the unusual in scenes. Truth is stranger the fiction and there is a lot of fodder out there to use.

• Do you read or see something unusual, funny, or bizarre, and think about how to use it in your writing?

• Any funny stories or videos you'd like to share?

The Kitten Files

     

Recharging: The Saving Grace of Laughter

Laughter isn't just the best medicine -- it's life's saving grace.

Everyone needs time away to refresh not only his or her creative spirit, but time to let go of stress. Ever notice when you spend time with friends or family laughing and having a good time, you tend to come back to every day chores with a renewed spirit? The manuscript you flung across the room in frustration suddenly has redeeming value again. You no longer want to send your kids and/or husband to homestead on the moon. What do you mean there is no oxygen or gravity? You’re so brilliant make some. (I figure I might as well put them to work while they know everything.)

The past week, I had a lot on my plate. I had deadlines, interviews to conduct, people I had to see, and places I had to be. I was still dealing with two weeks of sleep deprivation from when my son was recuperated from surgery—brings back memories of dealing with infant feedings every two hours. I had some late nights. I can tell you now, it ain’t pretty when those toothpicks propping open your eyelids fall out, nor is keyboard marks embedded in your face. I reopened a chapter I was writing while I was in the zone. I just didn’t realize what *zone I inhabited when I wrote a part of it. Sigh…yep, I found I had channeled three paragraphs of a foreign language from somewhere in the universe. Not sure exactly where and the UN has no known translators of this language.

Delete.

*Metaphorically throwing the manuscript across the room while muttering, ‘I so suck’.

Saturday, I had had it. My nap was interrupted, I had a stream of ranch business visitors, and I was grumpy. I grabbed the kid and said, "change clothes; we’re heading to Grandma’s house and bring your bathing suit." Just mentally shut the door on everything. Put on Seether, Breaking Benjamin, and Five Finger Death Punch, turned it up loud and Jake and I sang all the way to my mom’s

I had a wonderful time. I dropped Jake off at my brother’s house to visit with his cousin, and I went to my mom’s. No husbands and just girl time. We giggled and laughed. We swam in her pool, ran in the house just ahead of lightning and thunder. Mom has a healthy respect for both now but then proceeded to tell me tales of her misspent youth; a rowboat with an outboard in the middle of the lake on my grandparent's resort in Wisconsin. My mother gunning the engine to jump waves in the middle of a horrendous thunder storm, not once, but many times. *eye roll.

You’ve heard of ghost tales around the campfire? We shared, it’s a wonder we’re still alive tales. We sipped coffee and ate chocolate, we laughed at all the do you remember when stories and watched the Lightning bugs rise. We stayed up until 11:30 p.m. and had a blast. Sunday morning we got up to watch the birds sing up the sun and slipped into conversation on current events, music, books, and movies. Mom’s a great conversationalist and a well informed person and it’s amazing how smart she’s grown since I was a teen. *Wink

My younger brother came up to the house (he actually lives next door, sorta, on the family compound) at 7:30 for morning coffee and talk about his upcoming wedding. He’s twenty-six and marrying for the first time. Gads, I never realized what a romantic he is. We rounded off the morning with a visit from my other brother and his partner and my sister. Then it was time to go to my brother Mike’s house to pick up the kid. I was bubbly and relaxed--even when I had a blow out on the gravel road to my brother’s house. He played Knight in a shiny pick-up, had my tire changed in less than ten minutes (good thing as it was 90 degrees), picked up the kid and off for home.

I was energized, was able to finish the chapter I working on—in English this time, take care of blog stuff and still had time to do some work with my Arabian.


I need those fun times.

• What do you do to recharge or relax? You know, those weeks when life has you by the throat and you feel like any creative spark you’ve ever had must have died an ignominious death?

SNOW DAYS AND WRITING

When I was a kid, snow days were the thing to look forward to. A time for laugher and fun. No school, snowball fights, snow forts, and using the shovels—after we had shoveled the driveway—and making snow paths in the yard. We used these as trenches in our warfare games.

• The not so fun part of snow days was my mom and her list of chores. I now know this was self-defense on her part. It was a way keep six rambunctious kids occupied. Needless to say, we didn’t often whine, “I’m bored and I’ve got nothing to do.” Lord, big mistake and *The List* came out.

Snow days at my house are a bit different. First, I don’t have six kids, thank God, to keep occupied. Back then we stayed outside or found adventures of “lets pretend that…” in our bedroom or the third story attic.

I have one child. Uno only goes so far. Snowboarding outside takes up a few hours, if I’m lucky. Snowball fights still happen but it’s the kid and me. He has TV, movies, 360 Xbox, paper and art supplies, and shelf full of books. I have a computer and projects to get done. Articles to write, books to finish, books to edit. Did I mention editing?

This is a normal workweek for me. I’m trying to keep to my schedule. Four days of no school and a husband who can’t get to work either. It’s vacation time for them. I’m in a groove and I have not one but two housebound males wandering around bored. I am not bored. I have plenty to do. I get up from the computer for a short fifteen-minute break and stretch out my tight muscles, go to the bathroom and get a cup a coffee. My mind is on what I’m writing, working out the kinks mentally, and walk back into my office and there’s my husband checking out Fox Sports. We do have a working TV.

“Oh, I thought you were done?”

I’m dumbfounded. You can tell, dropped jaw, wide eyes, standing frozen in the doorway.

He can tell. “You’re not done?”

“Sweetheart, what part of five open tabs on the computer screen makes you think I’m done?”

I always try for the sweet, reasonable approach first.

So I decide to take out the dog, clear my head in the cold outside air and rid myself of frustration. It’s beautiful outside. The type of day that brings back echoes of laughing kids, snowball fights and snow forts. I feel a pull on the leash and bring my mind back to today just in time to see my poor Great Dane trying to do her business and ever so slowly slide down the incline. This is her second winter and she’s still learning her way on this white stuff. The look on her face is priceless and I can’t help but laugh. It feels good. I’m feeling better, which is a good thing.

I walk back into the house; breathe a sigh of relief when I see my husband watching TV. I walk into my office. And there is my fourteen-year-old son.

At my computer.

“Oh, I thought you were done?”

Oh, yeah, it’s gonna be a long week. Sigh.

Writing Laughter for Hard Times

Laughter isn't just the best medicine -- it's life's saving grace.

Laughter is the ultimate stress buster during hard times. When times are rough, people need something to de-stress their life and lighten the load—even if it’s only for a short time. I think this is why during the 1930’s, during the Great Depression and as Europe was gearing up for WWII, some of the greatest comedy teams were born: Marx Brothers, The Three Stooges, and Laurel and Hardy. Abbot and Costello were popular on radio. Remember, during this time period, radio shows were the main form of entertainment. The movies of the time featured a variety of comedies, from silly slapstick to romantic comedies.

The styles were different but they achieved their purpose. Making people laugh and forget for a time their troubles. The subject/premise of comedies were either light and fluffy or dealt with darker issues with an overlay of comedy. Parroting life, you could say. What made them work? A reasonable, though many times an improbable, premise. Good dialog, fast paced, proper build up of tension, and comedic timing.

For example, Laurel and Hardy’s Sons of the Desert (actually most of their movies) was a balance of laugh-out-loud dialogue, plus fast-paced slapstick. Every frame of the script and dialog built up to and led into the next, and comedic timing. This was the pattern taken up by Jackie Gleason and Art Carney and later Sienfeld used the same sort of humor. Monk and Psych, seen on TV today, borrow from this general style. It works.

Romantic comedies like Bringing up Baby, with Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn were popular. The premise was improbable but it worked. Main characters were well drawn, a straight-laced paleontologist trying to raise money for a museum and an impulsive and beautiful heiress, and their adventures. This was pure madcap comedy. I think an improbable premise works well for comedy. What made the comedy work are good dialog, fast pacing, and impeccable comedic timing.

The Thin Man is a classic and based on a novel by Dashiell Hammet. This was really a dark tale of solving multiple murders. Yet the movie makes you laugh. The dialog is sharp and clever, a combination of dry wit and unexpected silliness. It’s fast paced and never allows your attention to wander. The main characters are well developed; glamorous, stylish, intelligent, and they have tremendous fun as they work together to tracked down the murderer. From this style of light and dark, humor and danger, sprang many movies, TV shows, and books…Magnum, P.I., Remington Steel, and Burn Notice. Even Robert B Parker’s Spencer books are a blue-collar take on the Thin Man.

In the past eight years we’ve seen a lot of tragedy and hard times and they haven’t ended. Like in the 1930’s and 1940’s, people are facing attacks on the American people, subsequent wars, and economic hard times. People are looking for laughter and diversion. For example, just recently, Paul Blart: Mall Cop, starring Kevin James was #1 at the box office. So, its no surprise that updated versions of old styled comedies are again popular. Movies like The Mummy trilogy and the Rush Hour trilogy also balance fast paced dialog, laugh out loud humor, and the physical fight scenes—today’s form of slapstick. The Meet the Parents movie has well placed comic moments, but within the gags and the shock humor is a nice little romance story.

Romantic comedies like What Women Want and Two Weeks Notice are throwbacks to the screwball comedies of the 1930's and 1940's with witty repartee between characters, a rather improbable premise, well-paced comedic timing, and some gags/physical humor.

Many of these comedies were scripts; a few were based on novels. Setting up a premise, crafting your scenes, and writing dialog for a thriller or suspense are different than writing dialog for comedy. The same holds true if you write Romance—romantic suspense as opposed to romantic comedy. A different mind-set is required.

There is a market for laughter and well-developed comedy in today's hard times. Romantic comedies are popular and authors like Janet Evanovich and Toni Blake have successfully filled that need.

To be successful in writing comedy one must first have a solid premise. As we've seen, it doesn't have to be particularly realistic, in fact being slightly improbable works well. Well developed characters and from the examples we've looked at here, having a straight man and the comic, are necessary elements in writing a good comedy. Tightly written scenes that build one on the other pull your reader forward. Sharp, fast paced dialog. Use of gags or physical slapstick and this can be fight scenes or situations. One of the most important aspects of writing good comedy is having impeccable comedic timing.

What do you think is the secret to writing comedy? How do you set up your scenes? Do you feel a story can have a blend of both serious aspects and comedy, and be successful? What authors have you read that seem to do comedy well? And why?