Funny Way to Put It, Part 4: From Idea to Story


*

Vision 77

 

Funny Way to Put It, Part 4:

From Idea to Story

By

S.E. Batt

Copyright © 2014, S.E. Batt, All Rights Reserved

 

 

The past few episodes of Funny Way to Put It have been dealing with nuances of humour. The first one made out conflict to be funny, while the second and third showed the humorous nature of specific sentences and paragraphs. For the fourth and final entry, we’re going to have a look as to how you can turn a silly idea into a fully-fledged story.

First of all, let’s come up with a silly idea. How about this:

A dragon goes to a Starbucks.

Alright, there’s the concept. We can see a vague area of humour around this idea, but as it stands, it’s not very funny on its own. Writing a story where the humour rests upon the funny idea of a dragon in a Starbucks may make people smirk, but probably not laugh. The idea itself, however, does hold promise, and this article will explain how to get at that promise.

See, the above idea is a workable one, most definitely. The problem is, we have yet to probe the idea to see where all the story bits lie, and flesh out a silly concept into a respectable story.

So, let’s see what we can do with this idea.

Step 1: Where’s the conflict?

Remember in issue one, where I said that conflict is very useful for humour writing? If you have the need to flesh out a rather spineless idea, a point of conflict will most definitely liven up the characters and plot. So, what kind of conflicts can we perform with this situation? We could have the dragon get stuck in a door, or come in feeling ratty before his morning caffeine. There is one way we can implement this conflict, however, that I want to cover.

Step 2: Ground to Earth.

Would it hurt your head if I said that humour pieces can be high in the sky, yet grounded to reality? It’s definitely a strange concept, to be sure. However, grounding your silly idea into reality can end up helping it, in the long run.

So, what is ‘grounding’ a story idea to Earth? Simple; you take your humorous idea, and inject a dosage of reality into it. You take a part of life – social, political, economic, whatever – and mirror it within your story.

Why? Because, in my opinion, if a humour piece is allowed to fly off purely on its own crazy and surreal idea, it can lack something to draw a parallel from to highlight its nature. Silly, weird ideas are a dime a dozen to create. A monkey dressed as a samurai. A dolphin armed with Uzis. A banana that recites Shakespeare. It’s very easy to make a silly idea. What can make a silly idea shine is when you take that concept, and mirror our everyday life within it. You can use this power to say something about the current state of the world, or you can use it for some great laughs. Your choice.

So, let’s go back to our dragon wanting a coffee. How can we mirror reality within this story? How about we take that well-known aspect of life, which is the total jerk of a cashier. Everyone is staring at awe at this dragon ordering a coffee, but the cashier is having none of it. They roll their eyes when the dragon takes too long to choose, barks the options he can have with his coffee, and throws the order together on a tray, totally uncaring to the idea that he’s serving a dragon. This conflict can branch off to a dragon that gets angry, or have a branch where the dragon buckles. Both of these are reactions you’d see in reality, and paralleling it here can make the story feel more alive and ‘real’. Yes, even in a story about a dragon ordering Starbucks.

Or, how about this idea? The dragon himself is the jerk. Imagine the absolute assholes that you’ve met in retail -- either through observation or one-to-one experience. Now, let’s imagine if our dragon here is that jerk.

So, he comes into the establishment. Probably breaks the doors down as he goes. Approaches the counter and orders a grande cappuccino. Receives his order in a very timely fashion, and then…well, he’s a dragon, right? So that ‘grande’ cup he’s just got must be tiny. Imagine what kind of stuff your perception of a jerk customer would say about that tiny cup.

“I thought you said it was ‘grande’”, the dragon said, holding the cup between two fingers. “It is,” the cashier said. “But usually this is for human consumption.” The dragon tutted. “Well, you’ve lost this dragon’s business.”

So now we have a pissed-off dragon inside of a Starbucks. What do pissed-off customers do? Rant. Except this is a dragon, so they’re going to be spitting fire as they’re ranting, doing a good job slow-roasting the coffee beans on the counter, and barely missing slow-roasting some customers. So how do we deal with this ranting dragon in the story?

Well, let’s go back to our ‘grounding to reality’ plan. If there’s a fanatical customer throwing a rage in a real store, what will the cashier do?

Call the manager.

Step 3: Maintain the Balance

So now we have this idea where the cashier goes in the back and asks for some help with a rampaging mythological beast in the storefront. This story is getting more and more humorous threads within it, and all we’re doing is grounding this crazy idea to reality, allowing it to mirror our everyday lives. At this point in the story, I admit we have to get creative. Especially if we want a happy ending, where the annoying dragon gets kicked out. By a Starbucks manager.

This is a good example of keeping the idea silly, while also grounded. If you have the manager call the police (or the army!), and they apprehend/kill the dragon, that takes the wind out of the humour’s sails. You’ve grounded it too hard, and killed the funny idea in the process. So, let’s get creative, and think about how this Starbucks manager can repel this dragon. How about these?

a) The manager comes out in full medieval armour akin to St. George, scaring the dragon out of the establishment. b) The manager comes out with a heavy metal band logo on his shirt. The logo is of a ferocious-looking dragon. The dragon customer’s rage immediately dissipates when he recognises the dragon on the shirt (“I haven’t seen Xyrath in months!”) and the manager uses this hook to lead the dragon back out of the store. c) The manager wheels out a barrel filled with cappuccino. The dragon accepts it as a suitable alternative, and from then on, the size menu sports a black marker scribble at the very bottom, that reads ‘dragonsize’.

When you have a funny idea that you want to write a story about, conflict is pretty much a one-way ticket to a story worth reading. To bring out the humour even more, it’s good to have a healthy balance between the real world and the silly one that you have created. Going too silly creates an ‘airy’, weird story that doesn’t really engage the reader. Going too realistic will slaughter the humour and deflate the good feelings brought by the silly idea. When in doubt, consider both the silly route, and the realistic route. If one route seems funnier than the other, take it and see where it leads. Then, when you get stuck once more, see where you are in the balance and bring it towards the other side if imbalanced.

Using this tactic, we brought a rather plain and unsubstantial idea into a full story. I feel confident that the above story would be very suitable for one of my Flash Friday stories. Of course, this trick could very easily be applied to stories that grow longer legs than this little idea we had here. Add a source of conflict, balance the silly and the real, and bring it to a satisfying and good ending. Nothing can kill a funny story harder than a sad or brutal ending, unless you write dark humour!

That is all for the Funny Way to Put It series. This series has definitely not covered all the means that someone can write humour, such as satirical or romantic comedy. I do hope that, at the very least, people feel more confident in injecting humour into their stories, from nuggets of sentences to entire story ideas.

But the best way to refine your humour, and find your own special style, is to write and share. Find out what people are saying about your humour, and see if they have anything you can use. Sometimes you humour will ping off of someone’s armour, and sometimes it will strike a weak spot. At the end of the day, however, you have no real gauge as to how funny your work is. The only way you can improve your skills is to constantly experiment, show, and get feedback. Once you start hitting some home runs with your stories, you’ll know you’re onto something good.

Now go forth, have fun, and happy writing!