Marilyn Monroe reading.(and this fits my mood today)
Does this ever happen to you? You sit down in front of your work in progress and you're in sort of a flip mood. Suddenly you find yourself inserting puns and jokes every here and there. Little touches of humor.
Your dark story has become something else--acerbic, glib, jokey. Later, you realize you have pretty much destroyed the mood with your pitiful jokes.
Yet, maybe your humor lighten it up, providing a few minutes of joy in a joyless work. Does this happen to you or am I the only bi-polar writer out here?
12 comments:
You are not alone :)
Ah... I've done this. Sometimes I'll love the jokey part so much that I'll try to put it more jokes, which only last so long as I'm in a bemused mood.
My bigger problem is being too dark, morose, and bitter without a touch of wry humor. Then it sounds like an angry rant... those are harder to fix. =/
I'm pretty much almost always in favor of puns. Though I don't write fiction, you can find a fair share of groan-inducing jokes over on my blog, though lately my posts haven't been as funny, I don't think. I think puns almost always lighten the mood, no matter how "bad" they are.
Yes, striking the right and a readable tone can be tough. Especially when you resort to entertaining yourself more than a potential reader. And I guess I like dumb jokes too much.
I have a problem with ODing on innuendo. It's innuendo and out the other for me.
Paul-you're way too clever for me. I had to read it three times to get it.
That's a cool Monroe pic
I vacillated between one where she was actually reading and one where she was showing her fanny. This won.
totally. i just finished a piece that was darker than a slag heap. then i worked in a bunch of edits that smacked of embarrassment, black humor, and absurdity. i thought about beckett, ionesco, and pinter and how i laughed my ass off during their plays. i think it's critical to the balance.
I find striking the balance to be quite difficult. My problem, I note when editing, is that things sometimes read as if I am trying to be clever. And then it rarely is.
Excellent point, Chris. It does come out smarmy sometimes too.
I've done this and then removed whatever pun is there, because the reader may not understand the significance of it; unless spelled out--and by then the meaning will be ruined. The humour in my stories tends to be dry.
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