How to Write a Funny Story Activity With Students

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Writing a short, funny story tin be an enjoyable experience. Humour tin can assist defuse tense situations and bring people together with shared laughter, which tin can be very useful if the story involved is tense or upsetting. Whether you're writing an assignment for schoolhouse or simply have a wild and funny story yous need to tell through a written project, mixing comedy and writing can help you find an outlet for your creative urges. With a short, funny story, you can also express your humor in less time than it might take to write a full-length story or novel.

Writing Help

1. 1

   Make up one's mind on a setting. Some writers may prefer to plan out the plot before deciding on a setting. Even so, in comedic writing, humour is frequently based on situations. Before y'all starting time writing out the storyline for your piece of work, it may be helpful to consider where your story might take place and how yous tin derive humor from that setting.^[1]

   • Try to be original in choosing your setting. Readers may be turned off if information technology'due south a setting they're too familiar with, as it may feel like the story has been recycled.
   • Also, go along in mind that a vivid description of your setting will help reader to experience like they are at that place and this may help to make the story even funnier.
   • For curt stories, information technology's best to stick with as few setting changes as possible. Aim to work inside just one setting, merely don't exceed ii.

2. ii

   Come up with a plot. A plot is the most important component of any story. Plot is just what happens in the story, who is involved, and how that series of events unfolds.^[2]

   • Most compelling stories accept a offset, eye, and stop. Across that timeline there is a source of rising tension, a climax (breaking signal of the tension), and an unraveling of tension that leads into the ending.
   • Think virtually what the source of tension/drama will be, and try to piece of work that tension into the specific setting you've chosen for the story.
   • Consider how the source of tension can work with that setting. Perhaps the setting might heighten the tension, for example, or create a comedic situation by fashion of dissimilarity with the location where the events unfold.

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3. iii

   Programme out your characters. Every story needs interesting, realistic characters. A funny story needs interesting, realistic characters who either accept funny qualities or who find themselves in funny situations.^[3]

   • How you depict the characters may depend on their personalities and circumstances within the story.
   • For example, you might describe a bumbling "idiot" character who stumbles into funny situations, or a sarcastic graphic symbol who thinks he knows it all and realizes that he doesn't know anything most his own circumstances.
   • Make certain your characters are realistic and believable. A expert character should accept feelings/opinions and should be capable of reacting to his or her situation in realistic ways on the page.
   • Recollect about what kinds of characters could make your setting funny, or vice versa. All the elements of your story (setting, plot, and characters) should ideally work together, either by mixing well or by creating funny and unexpected contrasts.

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1. 1

   Describe humor from everywhere. As you plan out the humorous aspects of your short, funny story, it may be helpful to pull together things that you find funny from every aspect of your life.^[4] It can be personal, political, cultural - whatsoever you find funny, jot down notes on the story (the bodily plot), the state of affairs (what your story is actually well-nigh - for example, the dynamics of friendship), and why yous find it funny.^[5]

   • Effort keeping a notebook of ideas and inspiration. Write down funny things you lot run into and hear, or any ideas that come to mind.^{[half dozen]}
   • Don't be afraid to depict on humorous elements of your ain life and your friends' lives.^[7]
   • Your funny, brusk story doesn't need to be 100% autobiographical, but incorporating bits and pieces of awkward or funny situations from your own life can bring a sense of personality to your work.
   • Continue up on current events. You may not end up writing a story nearly world news or celebrity gossip, merely you may discover inspiration or even ways to directly draw plot elements from real events that are culturally relevant.

2. 2

   Have your own firm opinions and beliefs. Comedy requires a certain level of honesty on the part of the comedian. The same is true of writing, so it makes sense that yous should be honest with yourself as a writer of short, funny stories. Before you sit down to write your story, you should take a firm sense of what you lot think/believe almost the earth so that your humorous observations and writing in full general can stem from that element of yourself.^[8]

   • You wouldn't tell a political joke to your friends without taking some stance on the matter, so why try to be unbiased in your written humor?
   • Don't be so abrasive that your sense of humour would amerce people who disagree with you, but make sure that yous at to the lowest degree know where you stand on certain issues so that you tin find the situational humor in them.

3. 3

   Look for inspiration. If you're struggling to write a short, funny story, information technology might exist helpful to seek outside inspiration. Inspiration tin come up in many forms, simply the best ways to get inspired for a project similar this involve immersing yourself in funny stories (both written and visual).^[nine]

   • Read funny stories. You can find stories by searching online, or by checking at your local library or bookstore.
   • Watch funny movies and TV shows. Though it's not the same format as you're working with, y'all might yet go some inspiration.
   • As you watch and read things that entertain you, try to analyze the sense of humour.
   • Think about why y'all find certain things funny, consider the means an author or script writer might take crafted those humorous elements on the page, and wait for ways to accommodate that style of humor to your ain writing.

4. 4

   Know how to construct a joke. If you intend to incorporate actual jokes into your writing, yous should familiarize yourself with how comedians construct their jokes. You don't need to include jokes, but it's important to do it right if you're going to practice information technology at all. A joke should be unambiguously funny and shouldn't require the reader to dwell on the joke in order to find information technology funny. Ideally, your joke should arm-twist laughter as before long as your reader finishes reading it.

   • If you intend to deliver a punchline, make sure it goes at the finish of the joke. Otherwise it might confuse readers and leave them wondering what the funny part is supposed to exist.^[10]
   • Try putting together a list of two things that go together, then add a third seemingly unrelated affair. This is called the Rule of Threes.^{[11] [12]}
   • The 3rd thing you listing should be where the sense of humour comes from. It may be funny considering the third thing doesn't lucifer the others, or considering the third affair highlights some type of truth.
   • Every bit an example, yous might say something like, "My md thinks I'm losing it. He told me his recommendation is to go more fresh air, get more exercise, and stop calling him at 3:00 AM asking what's wrong with me."

5. 5

   Use sense of humour sparingly. Information technology may sound strange to propose that a funny story should use humor sparingly, but likewise much humor tin ruin a story. You lot don't want to cram the humor down your readers' throats; it should be funny without feeling like a comedic assault.^[thirteen]

   • Recollect that a funny story should still have a functional plot with realistic characters and dialogue. You tin't have a funny story just exist joke later joke the whole fourth dimension.
   • Let the humor stem from the setting, characters, and situations, or some combination of them. If you're trying to cram too much humor into a story (even a funny story), it tin can make your writing experience similar a corny gimmick.

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1. 1

   Constitute your story'due south elements early on. In any story, you'll desire to let the reader know who is involved, where the story takes place, and some hint of what the story is all about. This is true of funny stories likewise, but with the added chemical element of humor. Don't leave your readers guessing at anything for long, or they may not continue to read your story.

   • The beginning of any short story should plant the setting and at to the lowest degree 1 character.
   • Depict where the action is taking place, but try to make that description relevant. Find ways to draw tension and/or humor from the setting as much every bit possible.
   • Think most how and when the humorous elements of your story will unfold, and effort to at least hint at them from the onset of the story.
   • Remember that a short story'southward first should set something upwardly, whether it's tension, a source of humor within the story, or something that will be vital to the story at a afterward point.

2. 2

   Make things get complicated and funny in the eye. The middle of a story is where things typically get complex. In a short, funny story, the middle should too provide a decent amount of sense of humor, or at to the lowest degree a strong setup for something funny that is yet to come in the story.

   • Your story's heart section will probably be the longest. Make your words count by making things get interesting for 1 or more than characters in this section.
   • Tension should complicate the lives of your most important characters and form the basic arc of your story.^[14]
   • Tension often arises from conflict, commonly between the protagonist and another person, himself/herself, nature, technology, society, or God/gods/goddesses.
   • You may want to incorporate sense of humor that'south derived from the tension, or yous may choose to deliver sense of humor as a sort of comic relief that accompanies the tension so that it doesn't get too serious.

3. iii

   Wrap things up with a short ending. When writing in short course, you won't accept a lot of space on the page for long, drawn-out resolutions. Things need to go wrapped up in a timely manner, and the humor should really come through at this point (specially if y'all used the middle section to build up the humor).

   • Tension should unravel adequately speedily. The humour may stalk from this unraveling, or information technology may accompany information technology along the way.
   • Aim to be concise with your ending. Remember that while you're working within the frame of a short, funny story, you may have to trim things down to their essence.
   • Try to keep the story'due south ending a paragraph or so at almost, and make sure the reader finds some sense of humor and relief past the concluding judgement.

4. 4

   Create realistic dialogue. Now that you accept realistic characters, you'll need to make them speak in realistic ways. A good sign of strong writing is that the readers tin hear the dialogue and not recollect to themselves, "This is a work of fiction."^[fifteen]

   • Think most the manner people talk with one another. Read your written dialogue out loud and enquire yourself, "Do people actually say things similar that?"
   • Good dialogue should push button the narrative forwards. Avoid existence redundant or stating the obvious.
   • Strong dialogue shows a lot about each character'southward personality (including how he/she interacts with and treats other people).
   • Don't bog down your dialogue tags (the actions that accompany spoken lines) with details. For example, instead of saying, "'What should we do?' he asked, staring nervously and compulsively at the footing, careful to avoid her eyes," endeavor something elementary like, "What should we do?" he asked without lifting his eyes from the basis."

5. 5

   Embrace your subject completely in a short space. This is ane of the nigh difficult aspects of writing brusk stories. On the surface, you lot might recall writing a longer class (like a book) would be more difficult than a short story, but a good short story must accomplish the same tasks as a longer book inside a short corporeality of space. Everything needs to come together by the end, and on top of everything else your brusk, funny story needs elements of sense of humor.^[16]

   • You may have one thousand ideas about a subject area for your story. Nonetheless, y'all need to call back that when you're writing a curt, funny story, you lot're limited on space. Stick to one conflict and no more than 2 settings to aid keep your story focused and brief.
   • Don't get out your thought unexplored or unfulfilled. Brand sure your story fully analyzes the subject/thought you write about by the catastrophe.
   • You lot can ever trim down nonessential elements and words to make a story shorter.
   • You'll know that the idea has been fully explored when y'all've said (either directly, or indirectly past depiction) everything you need to say almost it.
   • For example, you lot'd demand a lot of space to adequately comprehend the complication of human being relationships. But y'all can capture a moment between two people and write about some aspect of friendship (like forgiving your friends for maxim/doing hurtful things) within a short, funny story.

6. 6

   Focus on the essentials while you write. It may exist hard to approach writing a short, funny story if you're not familiar with writing shorter works. Whether you choose to condense a longer story or expand a brief one, brand sure that you focus on the most important elements of that story as you write information technology.^[17]

   • Some people prefer to write a longer story and then shave information technology downward. This ensures that the story is complete.
   • Other writers prefer to start small and expand as needed. This can make brevity more piece of cake to work with and save you the stress of deciding what makes the final cut.
   • In that location'due south no right or wrong way to craft a short, funny story, and so become with any feels more than comfortable to you.
   • Whichever arroyo you take, make certain your story is consummate, your ideas and characters are well-adult, and the sense of humor is delivered in a satisfying way.

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1. 1

   Set bated your story before revising. The worst matter you can do when yous revise a story is to spring into revision immediately afterward you've finished writing it. You demand some time away from the projection and so that it'due south not so fresh in your head, and (ideally) so that yous're not so attached to every detail of the story.^[eighteen]

   • Give yourself at least a week or 2 between finishing the story and revising it. If possible, try to give yourself a month to actually put some distance between you and your story. No affair what y'all decide, stick with your revision program!
   • Consider asking a trusted friend or relative to look at the story. Ask him/her to be honest and critical, and emphasize that you want to know what isn't working and why.
   • Looking at a story with fresh eyes will help you see more than errors that yous might take missed. When the story is fresh in your caput it's easy to fill in the gaps with what you know, and you may non realize that that information isn't addressed on the page.
   • Giving yourself some time before revising volition also get in easier to cut things out. You may exist in dearest with a scene, but later setting information technology aside for a few weeks, you might realize that information technology isn't equally relevant as you thought it was.

2. 2

   Remind yourself what y'all wanted to accomplish. What was the signal of your funny story? Were yous trying to highlight a real social situation? Address some aspect of human nature? Draw humour from personal situations/experiences? Whatever your intentions, it'south a good idea to refresh that intention in your head before you proceed with the revision process.^[19]

   • By having your original intentions for the story in listen, you'll know what you had hoped to do with the story and will be able to assess whether you accomplished that goal or not.
   • Retrieve about whether the tone matches your intentions, likewise every bit the overall events of the story.

3. iii

   Clarify annihilation that's disruptive. This is an important office of why you should arroyo the story after setting it aside for a menstruum. When y'all've just finished writing a story, yous're less likely to catch any bug that might otherwise confuse a reader. Even so, if you lot've given yourself some fourth dimension, yous should discover your mistakes.

   • Defoliation may arise from the content of the story (or lack thereof), or information technology may result from a missing or poorly executed transition. Transitions should bridge one scene to the adjacent, one affiliate to the next, and then on.
   • A good transition wraps upwards the previous scene and gently guides the reader into the new i.
   • An example of a transition between ii scenes might be something like, "He watched her walk silently into the night until she faded into darkness. The next morning he kept looking towards the horizon, merely he knew she'd be halfway dwelling house by then."
   • You lot may want to ask a friend to read through your story and await for anything that's disruptive or doesn't make sense.

4. 4

   Edit your story for mistakes. Editing should be considered a split up step from revision. Revising your story involves rewriting parts as needed and trimming out things that don't piece of work. Editing, on the other mitt, more often than not involves fixing your line-level mistakes.

   • Look for spelling errors, grammer/syntax errors, run-on sentences, judgement fragments, punctuation errors, and whatsoever weak lines of dialogue.
   • Use the spellcheck function on your computer, or ask a friend with strong editing skills to take a look at your story.
   • Try reading the story out loud. Sometimes hearing a mistake out loud can help you catch it meliorate than only reading it silently on the page.

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Add New Question

• Question

  How tin I write a story catastrophe with the statement "whenever I call up this, I start laughing"?

  

  Christopher Taylor is an Adjunct Assistant Professor of English at Austin Community College in Texas. He received his PhD in English Literature and Medieval Studies from the Academy of Texas at Austin in 2014.

  

  English Professor

  Expert Answer

  The story should probably item a situation that was funny, then try to make the funny office the climax of the story. Build a plot effectually this funny moment.

• Question

  What are some skillful examples of a curt, funny story?

  

  Christopher Taylor is an Offshoot Assistant Professor of English at Austin Community College in Texas. He received his PhD in English language Literature and Medieval Studies from the University of Texas at Austin in 2014.

  

  English language Professor

  Good Respond

  Try checking out Margaret Atwood's "At that place Was Once," Mark Twain's "Luck," or James Thurber'southward "The Hole-and-corner Life of Walter Mitty."

• Question

  How can I choose what type of story I want to write?

  

  Go iii jars and a lot of paper. Characterization each jar: "Setting," "Characters," and "Time." Write a bunch of suggestions for each, then draw randomly from each jar.

• Question

  How do I know that my story will exist funny?

  

  You don't, just the best way to make sure your story makes people laugh is to write almost a universal topic that everyone finds funny.

• Question

  What is the purpose of writing funny stories?

  

  Information technology'southward funny, it makes yous laugh and fills you with happiness.

• Question

  Exercise you have any tips for writing an imaginative story for an exam?

  

  A skillful starting indicate is to attempt to think of something that happened in your own life that made you laugh, and so create a fictional character who has that experience. And then get-go thinking of "What if's" -- things that didn't happen in your experience that might have, or things that could never happen in real life but would be interesting if they did, and use those ideas to aggrandize the story.

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• Don't give up! If yous're having a hard fourth dimension, just finish for a while then starting time again.

• Remind yourself that stories are never perfect at kickoff. A writer's chore is to deconstruct and perfect her stories.

• Get a close friend to look at information technology. Make sure yous trust your friend and value his opinions, and exist certain to enquire him about the parts he thinks work well and demand revision.

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• Never steal another person's work. That includes jokes, as well as pieces of writing.

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Things You lot'll Need

• Paper
• A pencil
• A laptop/computer (optional)

References

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