Tim Dorsey
NOVEMBER 5th 2008, SELBY LIBRARY, 6:30 PM
The topic is humor, or, more specifically, “how does a writer actually go about creating a humorous story?”
Too often, speeches and workshops on humor are just a chance for the speaker to be funny and make the audience laugh. That isn’t what this is about. Rather, Tim is going to share with us, within the time constraints we have, some tips about how WE can write things that will make OUR OWN READERS laugh.
This is not about how you write jokes.
Rather, it is about how to incorporate humor into an otherwise straight story.
He will tell us, and maybe even show us, how to approach humor as a craft. Some topics he might cover are:
· How should a novice writer tackle humor?
· What does it really mean to be funny?
· What does ‘funny,’ itself, really mean?
· What are the elements that a writer must understand in order to write humor?
· What will take you from gentle, warm, humor to GUT-BUSTING humor?
· Is it all in the eye of the beholder? Or is there a device? Or two? Or three?
Tim Dorsey writes action/ mysteries with humor, sometimes gut-busting humor. Without the humor, his stories would be closer to a mix of mystery and near-horror—stories that should not be read when you are alone and weaponless. With humor, they are hilarious. Few writers can pull that off at all, and he does it well enough to be a mainstream commercial success.
This will be one of our best-ever evenings. Don’t miss it.
