Channeling my inner Whedon.
August 15, 2013 2:39 AM   Subscribe

Hi, writers of MeFi! I am an unpublished writer of fiction. I think I am good, or at least, not terrible. No great stylist, but readable. However, I am awful at writing witty dialogue. I can do awkward, I love writing arguments, but I can't do funny. Can you help?

I know it's not enough just to produce a bunch of wisecracks, and it has to stem from the character. Even when I know the character is supposed to be the kind of person who is witty, I can't put words into their mouth because I am not witty myself.

It's strange because in real life many people would describe me as funny, or at least I do end up laughing a lot with people, but it's hard to reproduce that in made-up context with made-up characters.

I know that humour is entirely subjective, but I would like to be able to write funny, snappy dialogue that moves the plot along but is also fun to read in and of itself.

I am working on a couple of projects at the moment: one is a romance and the other is, I guess, a social comedy? Both could do with being a bit snappier and wittier.
posted by Ziggy500 to Writing & Language (12 answers total) 7 users marked this as a favorite
 
I'm sorry, what was the question?
posted by empath at 2:41 AM on August 15, 2013


Response by poster: I can't do funny. Can you help?

Sorry if that wasn't clear enough. I was hoping for general help with how to write funnier dialogue.
posted by Ziggy500 at 2:43 AM on August 15, 2013


Best answer: I read an interview with Sheila Heti a while ago, who wrote "How Should a Person Be". She said she got most of her funniest bits straight from real life, and I think she actually even recorded conversations with her friends to get a feel for what was naturally funny.
posted by greenish at 3:42 AM on August 15, 2013


Best answer: Seconding greenish. One exercise we used to do in my playwriting class was "overheard voices" for which we would record and share overheard snippets of other people's conversations. If you do this while being on the lookout for humorous conversations, I think this will help you get a better sense of how funny dialogue goes.
posted by emkelley at 4:18 AM on August 15, 2013


Best answer: To some extent, it depends on what kind of genre you're trying to write. If you are going for a sci-fi or scary supernatural story with witty patter, ala Whedon, a lot of that is just making people who are caught up in grand, otherworldly events pause to talk about smaller, real world concerns. The incongruity makes it funny, and it makes the world of the story feel more real. For instance, if a group of people is trying to summon a demon, and the demon possesses one of them and and is just very scary, that's your standard horror. If the demon possesses one of them and is very scary, but then pauses to complain that it doesn't care for this new body because it's a bit hippy ("Hey, does your friend's body make my ass look big?") that punctures the seriousness of the moment but also reveals an unexpected, vain, petty side of the demon.

As for writing humor in more realistic scenarios, if you're true to life, the humor will come. People make jokes to defuse tension, to flirt, to cope with tragedy. Focus on making your characters feel real, and they may start making funny remarks without you having to force it.

Or maybe you're just meant to write more serious stuff. A lot of great writers weren't exactly laugh riots.
posted by Ursula Hitler at 5:27 AM on August 15, 2013


Best answer: Read some Aaron Allston (Starfighters of Adumar in particular) and take notes. He said, something along the lines of: Smart, capable people often react to periods of stress by being silly. Check their personalities for their type of humor: Cynical, jaded, naieve, optimistic, etc.

And check the classic B&W movies with Bogart and Bergman and other great screen couples.

Also, humor does NOT need to advance the plot, significantly. I consider it much more of a pacing and worldbuilding tool. You can't make the whole novel witty humor banter...... (uh, unless, it, is that kinda novel) but some humor w/o Plot Advancement is perfectly fine.
posted by Jacen at 6:13 AM on August 15, 2013


Best answer: Check out some of the great comedies of the studio era, which are loaded with terrific dialogue. In particular, I'd recommend the films of Preston Sturges, who is just a flipping genius. The Miracle of Morgan's Creek, Hail the Conquering Hero, and Sullivan's Travels are like master classes in hilarious dialogue that springs naturally from character.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 7:03 AM on August 15, 2013 [1 favorite]


Best answer: I'm funny in person, too. You would not know it from my books. In my books, as my husband says, "Phoebe is serious business."

While it's possible to develop humor as a skill, I do think that, to a certain extent, your voice is your voice, and nothing is worse than forcing it. Readers can tell, especially with humor. Which is just to say, it's okay if you never nail funny, too.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 7:25 AM on August 15, 2013


Best answer: One of the best pieces of advices I ever received on writing funny dialogue was this:

"Payoff lines that achieve their effect because of the situation in which they are placed are much to be preferred to self-standing witticisms and wisecracks. Fitting into the context is virtually the definition of good dialogue. To appreciate this you need only consider the effect of the most famous line of dialogue in the history of drama: 'To Be Or Not To Be.'..."

-- Yves Lavandier in the book Writing Drama. He gives another great example from the end of the comedy Some Like It Hot: The big laugh line at the end is "Nobody's perfect," but it's only funny because of the character's motivation, not because it's witty.

Of course Joss Whedon lines, on the other hand, are known for just sort of being snarky in a different way...but in my experience, scenes I've written have been funnier when the character is trying to be serious about pursuing a goal.
posted by steinsaltz at 9:26 AM on August 15, 2013 [2 favorites]


Best answer: I know Scott Adams is sort of persona non get fucked round here, but he's got some smart straightforward advice on being funny in 'The Joy of Work'.
posted by Sebmojo at 6:48 PM on August 15, 2013


Best answer: Jane Espenson is a TV writer who worked on Buffy, Angel, Gilmore Girls, Battlestar Galactica and others. Her blog is devoted to how to write for television and she's got many, many entries on writing comedic dialog. She's not updating it any more but the archives are still worth going through.

Also, if you're looking for examples of great comic dialog, try Gregory McDonald, author of the Fletch books.
posted by zanni at 5:01 AM on August 16, 2013 [1 favorite]


Best answer: First: Until you are completely confident in your work (you should not be completely confident until you've finished a few works of whatever length and they've received a mostly positive response), you should be reading dialogue out loud, as if from a script. It helps if you live alone. This will help you get past one of the bigger obstacles in terms of dialogue: the obstacle of "People don't talk like that." You'll know it when you see it. Something that might look cool on the page but when read out loud it will become clear that a person would never actually say what you've written them to say.

Second: At the same time - this is a bit of a trick, I admit - you need to balance the first rule with the fact that your dialogue should be interesting. This means that naturalism is fine, but you should cut sentences that don't add movement. No one should make small talk unless it's relevant to the plot or part of a joke. Don't start exchanges with, "Hi, how are you?" "Good, how are you?" "Good. Now, about that thing we were talking about..." Just cut to the important part. Applying these two rules will add a bit of zip in and of itself.

Third: As noted above, listen to the people around you. Take in their quirks, their verbal tics, the things that make them unique. Keep a mental Rolodex of interesting things people do when they talk. Try to figure out which of those qualities might add some color to a character and go along with their personality, with their role in the plot. This will help you write in voices, and the only thing for it is to listen and read. Nota bene: I notice you mention Whedon in the title. He's a good place to start, but don't rely on him too heavily. His dialogue works well on screen, where actors can give personality to what he writes, but his run on Astonishing X-Men made it seem like he only has a handful of actual voices he can write in, and "sarcastic teenage girl" is more than one of them.

Fourth: Writing good comedic dialogue is harder than it looks and it's a skill you learn, it's a thing you become able to do with practice. It's hard to lay out exact rules for it. You learn to feel it over time and the mental rules for what constitutes comedy become intuitive. In my own particular opinion, a really good place to start would be watching Marx Brothers movies and paying attention to Groucho, especially when he's dealing with any of the movie's straight-man characters:

You're willing to pay him a thousand dollars a night just for singing? Why, you can get a phonograph record of Minnie the Moocher for 75 cents. And for a buck and a quarter, you can get Minnie.

Ladies and gentlemen... I guess that takes in most of you...


Henderson: You live here all alone?
Otis B. Driftwood: Yes. Just me and my memories. I'm practically a hermit.
Henderson: Oh. A hermit. I notice the table's set for four.
Otis B. Driftwood: That's nothing - my alarm clock is set for eight. That doesn't prove a thing.


I could dance with you till the cows come home. On second thought, I'd rather dance with the cows till you came home.

Clear? Huh! Why a four-year-old child could understand this report. Run out and find me a four-year-old child. I can't make head or tail out of it.

Mrs. Teasdale: As chairwoman of the reception committee, I welcome you with open arms.
Firefly: Is that so? How late do you stay open?
Mrs. Teasdale: I've sponsored your appointment because I feel you are the most able statesman in all Freedonia.
Firefly: Well, that covers a lot of ground. Say, you cover a lot of ground yourself. You'd better beat it; I hear they're gonna tear you down and put up an office building where you're standing. You can leave in a taxi. If you can't get a taxi, you can leave in a huff. If that's too soon, you can leave in a minute and a huff. You know, you haven't stopped talking since I came here. You must have been vaccinated with a phonograph needle.


You get the idea. One of the best things about being the writer is that you can stack the deck for your characters. Groucho's lines are funny, but they're even funnier because he's delivering them to a stuffed shirt whose job is to mostly throw him softball set-ups.

Anyway. Read and listen and practice and keep at it. In time, you'll get it.
posted by FAMOUS MONSTER at 8:30 AM on August 16, 2013 [1 favorite]


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