Writing Romance FictionHumour In Romance Writing© Malvina Yock 2002 A former Vice-President of Romance Writers of Australia and the inaugural manager of Rendevous, a romance bookstore, Malvina has a vast and valuable knowledge of the romance market. She is the author of several non-fiction articles on Romance Writing and several of her romance short stories have been anthologized. I love to laugh, so I've welcomed the increasing humorous trend in romantic fiction with relish. It's optimistic, up beat, and gives me a happy high as the hero and heroine fall in love. Writing humour in romance is much harder, however, than presenting it in a film or performance. Without the benefit of the subtle, visual and/or aural inflections an actor gives to comedy lines, the so-called funny written word can fall flat. Horrors! How Authors Use Humour in Romance Let's look at how some authors use humour in romance, a genre aimed primarily at a female market. Humour can arise when a character, accustomed to being in control or at least trying to be in control, find themselves, and/or the situation, and/or other characters out of control! Along this comic continuum, humour generates from the character's unexpected response and/or reaction to the situation. Author Jennifer Archer, interviewed at http://www.likesbooks.com/ states: "…I strongly believe the best humour derives from a character's response to a situation, rather than simply the situation itself… the characters' reactions to the situation create the comedy." Jot down some of the things you've found amusing in your own family, community, or work. Consider how people have reacted/responded to these situations: instant writing material! Male vs. Female Humour A word here about the difference in male and female humour. Male humour is a little more aggressive, often aimed at people more vulnerable than themselves, or towards targets they'd like to see 'fail'. Slapstick can fall into this category, something both men and women do enjoy. But, as popular author Jennifer Crusie states on her website: http://www.sff.net/people/jennifercrusie/, "Most women don't like aggressive humour that attacks people who are minding their own business or who are weaker or vulnerable. Most women DO like humour that attacks people who have attacked women, so use defensive humour that attacks up… "Women also like humour that points out the absurdities in the general prevailing patriarchal view of reality. "Because most women are interested in and rely on relationships, we like community-based humour best… when two or more people form a tight bond and share opinions and senses of humour so that events that are not particularly funny to people outside the community become hysterical to those inside the community (which includes the reader…)" Author Elizabeth Bevarly agrees with Jennifer's idea of finding humour in the characters' community. She states on the All About Romance (AAR) website: "I come from a pretty funny family, and I can find humour in just about any situation." Jennifer Archer adds: "I think women are most amused by situations they relate to… Often, I turn to my personal experiences with the women in my life when pondering ideas for adding humour to my writing. What do we talk about when we get together? What topics, situations and attitudes make us laugh?" For example, in Jennifer Crusie's book Fast Women, her heroine Nell looks at the assembled group around the dinner table and blurts out she's made love to every person there (including the women). To a reader who hasn't experienced the 'community' of Jennifer's book, this statement sounds bald, possibly risqué, and not particularly amusing. In context, however, it was a very funny revelation. Jennifer Crusie continues: "The best community-based humour in romance fiction is the humour bond shared by the heroine and hero, in particular their ability to banter without hurting or insulting each other." A prime example is the snappy, sexy, fast-paced interactions between the hero and heroine in Linda Howard's Mr. Perfect. I should mention they both have a car fetish. In a particularly raunchy kissing scene, set outside in full view of the entire neighbourhood, the desperately aroused hero begs the heroine to come inside to finish what they've started. She counters by asking to see his fabled red truck. He says no, not unless she agrees to have sex with him. Astonished and aroused herself, but also dead keen to see his truck, she nearly capitulates. Then she plays her trump card. She'll show him her father's legendary, one-of-a-kind car (the sort the hero considers the Holy Grail), if he lets her see his truck. She does, he does, and they, um, both do. Terrific fun. Historical romance is fertile ground for witty, clever bantering between hero and heroine. Georgette Heyer's books showcase this spectacularly. The historical period itself gifts its own unique character to hero/heroine encounters. Delicious fodder, as writers create artistic variations on the manners and mores of the time. So why does humour sometimes fail? The answer is simple: humour is very subjective. What is funny to one person isn't funny to another. I'm sure you've all told a funny story that hasn't even raised a smile. Or you might have a wonderful comedic delivery that has people rolling in the aisles. But writing successful humour is much harder than people realize; it's difficult to find the elusive common denominator(s) readers enjoy. Here's another example from Linda Howard's superb Mr. Perfect. Early in the book the heroine meets her friends in a bar after work. On a mad impulse, fuelled by remembering personal romantic disasters, they start writing a tongue-in-cheek checklist for their 'Mr. Perfect'. They come up with some serious and some funny points. By the end of the scene they've had a few drinks and start 'shrieking with laughter' as the suggestions become raunchy. I laughed when I read it, although I certainly wasn't gasping, holding my stomach and shrieking with laughter like the characters. A friend of mine decided this scene didn't work for her. She explained, "I think I had to be there, and have a few drinks, for it to be funny. I can't stand it when people scream with laughter in a book, and I'm sitting there reading it cold." But she loved the rest of the book; this was the only scene that didn't work for her. Test Your Humorous Scene Everyone's sense of humour is different. Run your humorous scene past a critique group. If they laugh, terrific! If not, you may need to rewrite… Either way, ask why it did or didn't work for them, and take note of their opinions/suggestions. Running Gags I must mention running gags through a book. Jill Barnett uses it well in Bewitching. Her heroine is a somewhat inept witch, married to a rather uptight nobleman. She tends to get her spells wrong, with quite chaotic results. Also, every time she sneezes, the last object she's thought about instantly materializes in vast quantities. This becomes funnier as the book progresses, and ta-dah! all sorts of unexpected surprises appear (and her husband becomes increasingly uptight). As a reader I was absolutely enchanted - the delight in anticipating the unexpected had me hooked. Rebecca Paisley uses a talking parrot as a running gag in Heartstrings. The parrot replicates, loudly and perfectly, any conversation he's overheard. It's far worse than a child blurting secrets out - how can you stop a parrot from talking? Every time that parrot strolled into the scene I started to laugh, knowing he would repeat inappropriate and outrageous statements at the worst, most hideously embarrassing time. No conversation, no matter how intimate, was sacred. Jill Barnett adds this thought on humour: "The humour comes from who the characters are, their individual situations, and from my mind. I rewrite constantly. Books are about emotion and writing emotion is truly difficult… But the funny scenes come from out of the blue. I never plan them. They just appear … like magic and I find myself laughing and having fun. …Sometimes it's still very difficult." Yes, it's difficult. But gosh, it's fun. Some Of My Favourites The following are some of my favourite romantic funnies: all books by Jennifer Crusie, The Bride and other historicals by Julie Garwood, the delightful Lynsay Sands, Judith Ivory's The Proposition, Barbara Metzger's witty Regencies, Jill Barnett's historicals, Merely Married by Patricia Coughlin, Julia Quinn's light-hearted Regency romps, My Dearest Enemy by Connie Brockway, Rebecca Paisley, Mr. Perfect and Duncan's Bride by Linda Howard, Rachel Gibson, Susan Elizabeth Phillips, Susan Andersen, Sandra Hill, and Janet Evanovich. The tip of the iceberg! It seems appropriate to finish with a wonderful quote from Jill Barnett: "If you want to write humour, you'd better be a cockeyed optimist; it should be part of your vision. Part of who you are. If it's not, write to your own truth, whatever that may be. That is the only way to become a great storyteller. It's a writer's vision, their view of the world and of people in it, that forms their voice, and it's that individual voice alone that readers relate to. Your words have to be honest." Copyright © 2002 Malvina Yock. This article first appeared in Writing For Success Issue 8, July-Aug 2002. To find out more about subscribing to Writing for Success and its private writers' site, go to http://www.writing4success-newsletter.com For further reading: How
To Write Funny: add humor to every kind of writing Ed. John
B. Kachuba; Writer's Digest Books; 2001ISBN 1582970548 |