That's Funny!

I have my eyeball on a contest, the deadline of which is coming up in three weeks. I thought "Liv is pretty close to polished, at least the beginning. I can do this."

The final judges are awesome: An agent AND an editor for each category, and for mine the judges are people I'd planned on contacting anyway. So, if (when -- I must be confident!) I final, things couldn't be better.

I posted my first 2000 words for feedback to my crit group. It was wonderful... it was a stronger opening, it made more sense, cleared up some issues.... ahh... I'm flying.

And then, one comment (right on target, incidentally): "You need more humor. This bit doesn't have any, and you need to let the reader know what they're in for."

ARGH! She's right.

I can't throw all the other goofy stuff that happens at the poor, unsuspecting reader without a little bit of a warning.

So all evening I walked around muttering, "More humor. Must have humor." And wondering how finding evidence that your fiance is cheating could be funny. And I realized that I have to make it funny. That's my job.

How do comedians do it? How can they be funny on demand? Doesn't it take all the fun out of funny? Suddenly I can't think one single funny thing, not even a little lighthearted. Very weird, since I usually have a hard time being 100% serious (and it's rubbed off on my daughter who runs around making up jokes -- remind me to tell you the one about rush hour sometime).

I woke up this morning, clearly having been cycling the same thought around in my brain, "More humor. Must have humor."

Still blank. So, I'm going to write a few miscellaneous scenes that have little or nothing to do with those first 2000 words and try to get my funny bone back. After all, I'm 12,000 words short, so maybe I'll write something worth keeping!

More humor.

Must have humor.