IMPROV!

YAY!  Tonight was the first class of an intensive Improvisation course I just signed up for.  It feels so good to be back at it!

I've taken many improv classes over the years.  I've done a couple at Second City and did the first four levels of improv training at the now defunct Bad Dog Theatre Co.  In either case, I've been away from it for a few years.  Man, have I missed tapping into that side of my brain, into that type of creativity.  So much fun!

Like so many of the other things I've been doing this summer, it's not about prowess or talent - it's about doing something enjoyable (but if I may say so, I'm not terrible at it!)

We did a number of games and activities (making an offer, saying yes, listening, establishing the space/scene) that I've done before and it was cool to feel so comfortable right from the outset doing these things.  Throughout the course of the evening, I became a peeping tom, a raccoon hunter, a champion bowler, and I spiked some chick's drink with a roofie...  Okay, none of that really happened, but all of it was believable for that moment.  

There was great energy in the room (classmates are various ages, various levels, various backgrounds), and everyone was laughing quite a bit.  Awesome!

I can't wait for the next class!

Humor in the Sasha Books

Even with dead bodies turning up here and there, crime fiction, especially hard-boiled private eye novels, often - in fact should - have a dose of humour in it. 

Here are a few examples of humour in the Sasha Jackson Mysteries:

The understatement:  “I can fuck up a bowl of cereal.”  (Frisky Business)  My protagonist Sasha Jackson is (like me) a terrible cook.  More than one person has told me that they laughed at this line.  I guess it’s that it’s just so simple, so benign, that visualizing what one would have to do in order to fuck up a bowl of cereal makes it funny. 

Repetition:  In Dead Light District, I re-use a play on the great Caesar quote: Veni Vidi Vici.  I variously write Venti Vidi Vici or Veni Vidi Visa or Veni VD Vici.

Adjectives: Have some fun with these!  Take invented words to the next level by inventing  adjectives via hyphenation.  In Blood and Groom, Sasha works part time at a phone sex line (and hates it).  Here’s a clip from one of her calls:  “Some heavy panting in my ear brought me back to reality. The horny schmuck on the phone was on the brink of physical gratification and needed dirty talk from me to guide him through it. Twenty more minutes to go. I trotted out everything I’d learned about performing and guided Sweaty-Hairy-Trekkie to telecomm-tele-cum.”  And a line I like even more is this one from The Lies Have It, which takes place during a municipal election in Toronto.  “Fortunately, there were almost no election signs for the three-hundred-pound, donut-snarfing, sub-literate, right-wing troglodyte – the only candidate whose victory would make me want to self-immolate in front of a library.”  (Torontonians may clue in to my inspiration for that one...)

And then there’s internal monologue:  This passage is from Frisky Business, and I think it’s initially funny because it’s based on a misunderstanding, but it’s also funny because of Sasha’s thoughts on it as it happens.  PI Sasha Jackson walks into a porno studio as part of her investigation, and the guy she talks to assumes she is one of the actresses:

“Go on through,” he said to me, “change room’s on the left.”

“Excuse me?  I’m not an, um, actress,” I replied.

Dude checked me out from head to toe.  “Wanna audition?  Nice face, and people love blonds.  You a natural?”

“Yes...”

“Good.  It’s better when the carpet matches the drapes.”

In my mind, I punched him in the nose.

“I’ve never heard it put—”

“Looks like you got a good body, even though your tits are kinda small for film.”

Excuse me?

“I thought the camera added ten pounds?” I said.

“Not where you need it, babe,” he said.

What?

Enough.

“I’m an investigator,” I said, handing him my card. “Sasha Jackson.  And you are...?”

“You’re a what?  Who the fuck said that you could come in here?  Get out, this is a private studio.”

He pushed the door open and waved me through it.  I stayed still. 

“Look, I just need to talk to you for a second.  I’m not trying to cause any trouble.”  He raised an eyebrow at me.  “I just need some help, from you, or maybe some of the actors, maybe the blond over there.” I made like I was about to walk over to her.

“All right, all right.  Let’s go out front.”

I followed him back out through the swinging doors.

“What’s your name?” I asked him again.

“I’m Bongo.”

Of course you are…

Finally, there is situational humour:  You can take situational humour to another level – a wee bit over the top, as I did in the first three Sasha JacksonMysteries.  Essentially, inversion is what is at play here:  My sleuth does the right thing but the wrong way.   I can’t say much more than that because of spoilers, but picture a topless blond running down the street of an upscale neighbourhood with a large sauce pan on her head.  Or imagine a lacy pink bra making the front page of the newspapers because said bra was a key piece of evidence in a crime...  The bra and saucepan incidents themselves are funny, but what gives even more of a laugh is that the action is so out of context and so distant from the thrust of the story, which is solving a crime. 

Murderous Wedding (Divorce?) Cakes

Here's a collection of bad karma cakes!  Any one of them would have been perfectly suitable as dessert for the characters in Blood and Groom (the wedding themed murder mystery novel in which I introduced my character PI Sasha Jackson). 

Fellow mystery writers may want to buy/bake one of these as inspiration!

Checklist for Being a Writer

1.  Fondness for Scotch.

2.  The ability to see things as they really are. 

3.  You enjoy the company of other writers.

4.  When you check a dictionary for the correct spelling of one word, you lose at least an hour reading about the word's history, its synonyms and antonyms, then you check two or three of the entries before and after that word...

5.  C'mon, admit it: You're a little insecure... 

6.  You have better conversations with your cat or dog that you do with your neighbours.

7.  It makes perfect sense to be wide awake at 4:00 am.

8.  You mentally edit everything you read.

9.  You neither like nor want money.

10.  Everything you read, hear, or see gives you an idea.

11.  At parties, you mentally file away snippets of conversations, thinking to yourself: Yes, that would be a great line.

12.  You have ADHD or OCD or some other (non-physical) affliction.

Stop! You’re Killing Me!!

Seven Tips for Writing Funny Mysteries

By Billie Thomas, author of 

Murder on the First Day of Christmas

When I count my blessings, I’m always careful to list the fact that writing humor comes easily to me. Notice, I didn’t say that I’m funny. That’s subjective. You can’t call yourself funny any more than you can call yourself cool or – god forbid – badass. No, I’m saying that I naturally hear the “beats” of humor, the way some people hear the beats I’m told are in music. (I don’t hear the beats in music, which is why I dance to the words.) But just as I’ve had to brush up on the skills that don’t come easily to me – plotting, for example – I think anyone can learn some tricks for writing humor. Will these tips make you funny? Again, subjective. But they can help you stack the odds in your favor.

Tip 1. Know your characters:

Having a thorough understanding of your character lets you understand how they relate to situations or to other characters. My protagonist, Chloe, for instance, is self-deprecating and a little ditzy. Funny things happen to her and she’s smart enough to see the humor in them. In Murder on the First Day of Christmas, a gynecologist corners Chloe at a party:

     “Hear you’re a personal trainer now. Maybe we could trade services. You get me back into fighting shape, I’ll give you free Pap smears for life.”

     I watched him lick lobster puff from his fat little fingers. Somehow, my usual line, “Let me check if I have any openings,” didn’t seem quite appropriate.  

See? Chloe is the type of girl that gets offered free Pap smears for life and she rolls with it. Her mother, Amanda, on the other hand, is more sophisticated and has a razor sharp wit. When the president of the Garden Club insults her, Amanda might fire back “Says the woman who puts the ‘hor’ in ‘horticulture.’”

The differences between Chloe and Amanda make the banter between them funny, but their affection for each other keeps it light.

Tip 2. Create a context.

Before you can deliver the laughs, you have to have set up.  Consider the context of your story and think about where the humor is inherent.  Will yours be a fish out of water story? One where the banter of two opposite characters provides the laughs the way it does for Chloe and Amanda? Maybe you’re writing a screwball comedy where zany things happen to unwitting characters? Whatever context you choose, don’t let your character in on the joke. “I’m a fish out of water,” your character acknowledges in a stage whisper. Your reader puts down your book and works on their taxes.  

Tip 3. Story first, humor second. 

The most important thing I’ve gleaned from all the rejection letters from agents and editors I’ve received over the years is that story is the entrée and humor is the seasoning. Hearing that your story is “laugh-loud funny but…,” that your writing is “great, however…” is more frustrating than I can communicate. As I said above, I’ve had to work really hard on plotting to make my stories strong without losing the humor. But relying on humor – the seasoning – at the expense of story? Look up “eating cinnamon” on Youtube to see what that’s like.

Tip 4. Don’t chase the joke.

This rule is as hard to obey as “kill your darlings.” And yet, it’s just as non-negotiable. A joke that requires too much set-up, that changes the trajectory of a scene, or worse, the story, that is out of context or undercuts the tension, simply has to die. Ok, it doesn’t have to die. It can be cut out, filed away and saved for another day. But it has no place in your book.

Tip 5. Repetition is funny.

There’s a saying that comedy happens in threes, so repeating a line, situation, or character foible can be a great source of humor. More importantly, it lets your reader feel like they’re in on the joke, giving them that “wait for it…wait for it” feeling that is so engaging.

I do this a couple of times in Murder on the First Day of Christmas with the way Amanda can’t help herself from commenting on something that annoys her about Chloe’s clothing choices. A repeated line, known as a callback appears in the beginning of the book and is the last line of the book as well. Also Chloe’s sister, Bridget is always tangling clichés. (“I know this town like the back of my head” or “You should march back in there and give him a piece of your ass.”) Repeating this character trait several times (but not every time we see Bridget) adds to the humor of her character.

Tip 6. Keep humor in its place. 

Mysteries have to have suspense. If your MC is cracking jokes while the murderer has a gun trained on them, the tension is sorely undercut. That could be what you’re going for – having your wisecracking character use humor to diffuse the situation. But if you want your reader on the edge of their seats, save the jokes for a different scene. The reader isn’t scared unless your characters are.

Tip 7. Mix it up.

Humor from any one direction is tiresome. If your book is all slapstick, all dirty jokes or all snark, your readers will get bored and start to tune out. Humor should also have an element of surprise, so let something slapsticky happen to the very poised person, or have the prude make an off-color remark. Using all the weapons in your humor arsenal will engage the reader and keep them turning pages.

What I love about writing humor is that the joy is inherent. Yes, there are tortured comedians and sad clowns, but ultimately humor comes from a positive place – the desire to make someone laugh. And, after what I did to Santa in my first book, I need all the good Karma that I can get.  

About Murder on the First Day of Christmas:

Finding a severed hand at a client’s house might throw lesser decorators off their games. But Chloe Carstairs and her mother, Amanda, won’t let a little thing like murder keep them from decking the halls. With a body under the partridge’s pear tree and a dead Santa in a sleigh, they have to crack the case before the killer strikes again – this time much too close to home.

Filled with laugh-out-loud humor, romance and a delightfully difficult mother-daughter relationship, this new series from Billie Thomas offers a fast-paced caper as these two southern ladies try to keep their very merry Christmas from turning into the Noel from hell.

Order on AMAZON

Order on BARNES and NOBLE 

About Billie Thomas 

Billie Thomas is the pseudonym of a Birmingham-based author. After the real Billie passed away unexpectedly at the end of 2011, getting Murder on the First Day of Christmas, the first of a series, revised and published was her daughter’s top priority as a way to honor the mom who had given her a lifelong love of books.

In her real life, Ms. Thomas writes within the advertising industry and is a founding member of the writing collective, IndieVisible. Other publications include Bar Code: Your Personal Pocket Decoder to the Modern Dating Scene.

 

Connect with Billie Thomas and her protagonist Chloe Carstairs at:

www.chloegetsaclue.com

Follow on Twitter:    @ChloeGetsAClue

www.facebook.com/chloe.cartairs.73

http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6877693.Billie_Thomas