 |
| I could write many humorous pieces about these two. |
Last Friday I had the joy of helping WOW! instructor Ashley Harris with her webinar on writing situational humor. I knew it would be best if I had a notebook handy while she was teaching, and I was right. Though I don’t normally consider myself skilled at writing humor, after penning some essays that delved into painful family dynamics and true crime recently, I was ready to switch things up.
You won’t be surprised to learn I came away with three solid ideas thanks to Ashley’s prompts. In one prompt, she shared an image of a national women’s magazine cover and students were tasked to write ten sentences inspired by one of the article titles. I zeroed in on “Quick and Easy Dinners.” I began scribbling immediately. When both kids were living at home, making dinner every night was anything quick and easy for a variety of reasons. The other three members of my family have an allium intolerance, meaning onions, scallions and garlic cause them abdominal discomfort and bloating, among other symptoms. My daughter always had sensory issues with certain foods. And I feel like I’ve been off and on Weight Watchers for the past 10 years. The beginning of this humor piece practically wrote itself. Quick and easy, my foot!
Another prompt had me scribbling down instructions on how to pet sit my two dogs. By exaggerating a few of the details, the list that currently resides on my computer could easily turn into a humor piece. One of my rescue dogs has heart valve damage because her previous owner didn’t give her preventative heartworm medication. As a result, she takes Viagra every eight hours. Yes, you read that right. How is that not going to make a pet sitter chuckle?
Another prompt involved taking a serious event that happened to us recently and making it funny. I’ve recently been diagnosed with high blood pressure, and the first day I was taking the prescribed dose of medication I became loopy and out of sorts. I probably shouldn’t have been driving. Then I had to move my husband’s SUV in the driveway while two A/C repairman stood in the yard (because of course our air conditioning had broken down).
Here’s what I was able to draft about that experience:
The two young A/C repairman stood in front of our house trying to ignore the sight of a flustered, middle-aged woman trying desperately to repark a Jeep Grand Cherokee in her short, slightly uphill, concrete driveway.
Through the open windows (it was, after all, a scorching hot afternoon in the south), they heard the vehicle beeping at me because I had decided not to buckle myself in. I also refused to move the seat, and my husband is eight inches taller than me. I put the car in reverse, or so I thought, because it was really in neutral. It vrooomed loudly in response.
Bless their hearts. They probably thought I had already started drinking for the day.
You get the picture. I have so many other life events that I could turn into humor pieces. Like the time I was walking around the grocery store with my blouse inside out before a kind woman clued me in. Or the day the back windshield broke on our SUV when we were driving home from the beach. We rigged the open space with beach chairs, bungee cords, and beach towels, and of course it rained the entire five hours back.
This is why I can’t recommend the instructors here at WOW! enough. Not only that, but we cracked one another up while sharing these story ideas. Sometimes it’s good to be able to laugh at ourselves in this crazy journey of life. It’s good for the soul.
Have you written any humor pieces lately? I’d love to hear about them!
Renee Roberson is an award-winning writer who also produces the true crime podcast, Missing in the Carolinas. She’s teaching a class on how to write Short, Twisty Suspense on Oct. 2 if you’d like to check it out.
