Mark Twain – How To Tell A Story

I read How To Tell A Story for the first time in my early twenties. I’ve never forgotten it. Every time I sit down to write something funny (I hope), I check it against this short piece to see if what I am envisioning is:

A humorous story
A witty story
A comic story

Mark Twain’s definitions usually resonate with me. As with the piece on Fenimore Cooper, it is the meticulous care that Twain puts into his rules that I find so useful. If you’re a writer, a storyteller, or a lover of words, check out How To Tell A Story and see where your ideas about humor fit in.