The Fun Factory

Tip of the day: Use humour

Appropriate humour is good. If you can make readers laugh you are already on a winner!

Amusing anecdotes from your own life can help the writer connect with the reader if they can identify with sharing similar situations in their own life — that is the technique used by many of the best comedians. Take Michael McIntyre, the UK comedian. His whole routine is built around the little incidents of everyday life we all experience, and he carries the audience with him, without resorting to swearing or vulgarity.

However remember that humour is quite individual, so a family in-joke, or something hilarious to you, may not chime with the reader, so be aware of how different people and their preferences are. Also sometimes cultural differences can lead to a joke that gets lost in translation. This is something I find with the UK and the US — we share the same language but have subtle differences in what we find funny, and appreciation of sarcasm on opposite sides of the Atlantic.

A couple of my attempts at humour are on the links below:

I hope you found this article useful, and any tips of your own in the comments.

Previous tips:

Day 29 — Let it shine

Day 28 — Using synonyms for variety

Day 27 — On drafting and revising

Day 26 — On Medium etiquette

Day 25 — On using informal language

Day 24 — Put a Tigger in your prose

Day 23 — Dedication — time, place, space

Day 22 — On spell-checking, Grammarly and proof-reading

Day 21 — The five unspoken commandments of Medium

Day 20 — George Orwell’s six tips on writing style

Day 19 — The importance of interaction

Day 18 — Replying to comments

Day 17: Engagement

Day 16- Attention-seeking behaviour — the importance of your first sentence –

Day 15 — Keep it snappy — headlines

Day 14- Subject selection –

Day 13 — Making time –

Day 12 — Deadlines –

Day 11 — Layout –

Day 10 — Niches for Riches –

Day 9 — Do your own research –

Day 8 — Choosing your subject –

Day 7 — Reverse engineering success –

Day 6 — Planning –

Day 5 — Location –

Day 4 — Dictionary and thesaurus –

Day 3 –Quotations

Day 2 — Mind your language — learning new words

Day 1- The Notebook

As always, thank you for reading.