David Schwinghammer's Blog - Posts Tagged "m-a-s-h"
What to Look for in a Humorous Novel
Certainly each person’s sense of humor is different. Some prefer slapstick, some prefer raunch while others cringe, some prefer something a little bit more cerebral like satire. Despite individual preference, I think there are a few guidelines the budding writer might consider before beginning a comic novel.
1. Characterization. It helps to have a likable main character. Hawkeye Pierce in M.A.S.H. is somewhat sarcastic and disrespectful of authority, and he’s a drunk and a skirt chaser, but we like him anyway because he’s high on the “cool” thermometer. Two such dissimilar actors as Donald Sutherland and Alan Alda played the man and we like them both. In my novel, SOLDIER’S GAP, I set out to find a character similar to Hawkeye, and I think I found him in Deputy Sheriff Dave Jenkins.
2. Dialogue. Snappy dialogue goes a long way as you can see in the Janet Evanovich numbers. Dialogue also reveals personality if you can get your characters to sound different.
3. Straight men and sidekicks. It always helps to have somebody to play off of. In SOLDIER’S GAP, it’s Mingo Jones. Mingo Jones is a Mescalero Apache and night deputy who is investigating his native American heritage, which includes belief in ghosts and the Land of Ever Summer.
4. Don’t try to be funny on every page. Maybe that’s why I don’t like Jerry Lewis. In everyday life, the funniest people aren’t trying to be funny half the time. They also have to live their lives and if they fool around too much they’re out of work. Also, as you can see from your Leno jokes, not everything is funny. Besides, you need to keep your story moving and that’s pretty hard to do if you’re always going for the yucks. Read the Dortmunder novels. Donald Westlake is one of the funniest humor writers working today, but most of the time he’s more interested in the caper.
5. Weird is not necessarily funny. If you’re reading a vampire novel, you need to overcome suspension of disbelief before you can appreciate the humor. That’s not to say it doesn’t work. Everybody loves Abby on NCIS and she’s certainly weird. In SOLDIER’S GAP there’s Mo Pleasiac, a teenage genius, who has latched onto Dave Jenkins as a father substitute.
6. It’s okay to be serious and humorous, especially when writing satire, but you need to know the tricks of the trade, primarily hyperbole. Jonathan Swift exaggerated the problems with English politics, using outsized (and undersized) characters. Try to be topical. Christopher Buckley, the premier American satirist writes about smoking and government assisted suicide. Lately he’s been writing about his father, who thought urinating in public was only wrong if other people did it.
7. Minor characters. People are people watchers. Funny little characters can liven up your novel. Grandma Mazur isn’t in the Evanovich books very much, but we recognize her from our own experience, if only from TV sitcoms. The woman who discovers Principal Egge’s body in SOLDIER’S GAP is a special education teacher who also does palm reading. A cast of characters is almost as important as the main character. Part of the reason Stuart Kaminsky’s Porfiry Rostnikov novels are so popular is because readers like to hang out with these people.
8. Setting. Brooklyn is funny for some reason, maybe because of the accent.
Brainerd, Minnesota, was funny in “Fargo,” once again because of the way the characters talked. Texas is funny because of Texans’ outsized egos.
9. Your main character can’t be too competent. Dave Jenkins of SOLDIER’S GAP can’t see the forest for the trees in respect to his romantic relationships. He’s also a lone eagle, unwilling to take advantage of the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension’s expertise. He just assumes they’re incompetent because they’re bureaucrats. It helps to have a minor character who’s smarter than your lead. “MO” Pleasiac, in SOLDIER’S GAP is Sherlock Holmes’ smarter brother Mycroft to Dave Jenkins’ Sherlock.
10. The Battle of the sexes. This can be a great opportunity for some funny dialogue. Men and women are always trying to one-up each other. Perhaps you can create a situation where two characters have a brother/sister relationship, but one of them is romantically interested in the other or maybe they both are and they don’t know it. See “Bones.” Annie Kline is one of the love interests in SOLDIER’S GAP, but Dave Jenkins doesn’t realize how much he cares for her because she does guy things like work for the volunteer fire department and play shortstop on his softball team.
SOLDIER'S GAP can be purchased at goodreads or Amazon.com, new and used.
1. Characterization. It helps to have a likable main character. Hawkeye Pierce in M.A.S.H. is somewhat sarcastic and disrespectful of authority, and he’s a drunk and a skirt chaser, but we like him anyway because he’s high on the “cool” thermometer. Two such dissimilar actors as Donald Sutherland and Alan Alda played the man and we like them both. In my novel, SOLDIER’S GAP, I set out to find a character similar to Hawkeye, and I think I found him in Deputy Sheriff Dave Jenkins.
2. Dialogue. Snappy dialogue goes a long way as you can see in the Janet Evanovich numbers. Dialogue also reveals personality if you can get your characters to sound different.
3. Straight men and sidekicks. It always helps to have somebody to play off of. In SOLDIER’S GAP, it’s Mingo Jones. Mingo Jones is a Mescalero Apache and night deputy who is investigating his native American heritage, which includes belief in ghosts and the Land of Ever Summer.
4. Don’t try to be funny on every page. Maybe that’s why I don’t like Jerry Lewis. In everyday life, the funniest people aren’t trying to be funny half the time. They also have to live their lives and if they fool around too much they’re out of work. Also, as you can see from your Leno jokes, not everything is funny. Besides, you need to keep your story moving and that’s pretty hard to do if you’re always going for the yucks. Read the Dortmunder novels. Donald Westlake is one of the funniest humor writers working today, but most of the time he’s more interested in the caper.
5. Weird is not necessarily funny. If you’re reading a vampire novel, you need to overcome suspension of disbelief before you can appreciate the humor. That’s not to say it doesn’t work. Everybody loves Abby on NCIS and she’s certainly weird. In SOLDIER’S GAP there’s Mo Pleasiac, a teenage genius, who has latched onto Dave Jenkins as a father substitute.
6. It’s okay to be serious and humorous, especially when writing satire, but you need to know the tricks of the trade, primarily hyperbole. Jonathan Swift exaggerated the problems with English politics, using outsized (and undersized) characters. Try to be topical. Christopher Buckley, the premier American satirist writes about smoking and government assisted suicide. Lately he’s been writing about his father, who thought urinating in public was only wrong if other people did it.
7. Minor characters. People are people watchers. Funny little characters can liven up your novel. Grandma Mazur isn’t in the Evanovich books very much, but we recognize her from our own experience, if only from TV sitcoms. The woman who discovers Principal Egge’s body in SOLDIER’S GAP is a special education teacher who also does palm reading. A cast of characters is almost as important as the main character. Part of the reason Stuart Kaminsky’s Porfiry Rostnikov novels are so popular is because readers like to hang out with these people.
8. Setting. Brooklyn is funny for some reason, maybe because of the accent.
Brainerd, Minnesota, was funny in “Fargo,” once again because of the way the characters talked. Texas is funny because of Texans’ outsized egos.
9. Your main character can’t be too competent. Dave Jenkins of SOLDIER’S GAP can’t see the forest for the trees in respect to his romantic relationships. He’s also a lone eagle, unwilling to take advantage of the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension’s expertise. He just assumes they’re incompetent because they’re bureaucrats. It helps to have a minor character who’s smarter than your lead. “MO” Pleasiac, in SOLDIER’S GAP is Sherlock Holmes’ smarter brother Mycroft to Dave Jenkins’ Sherlock.
10. The Battle of the sexes. This can be a great opportunity for some funny dialogue. Men and women are always trying to one-up each other. Perhaps you can create a situation where two characters have a brother/sister relationship, but one of them is romantically interested in the other or maybe they both are and they don’t know it. See “Bones.” Annie Kline is one of the love interests in SOLDIER’S GAP, but Dave Jenkins doesn’t realize how much he cares for her because she does guy things like work for the volunteer fire department and play shortstop on his softball team.
SOLDIER'S GAP can be purchased at goodreads or Amazon.com, new and used.
