Despite this, humor writing can seem daunting. To demystify the process, we assembled an all-star team of beloved, boffo bloggers who agreed to pull back the curtain on the Wizard of HAs.

(What? Puns are funny! Our experts agree!)

Our distinguished panel of humorists includes:

• Matt, the self-proclaimed “greatest blogger of his generation” behind You Monsters are People.
• Darla, who brings the plaid and the funny at She’s a Maineiac.
• Len, the enfant terrible responsible for Blurt.
• Katie, proprietress and head bouncer at Sass & Balderdash.
• Julie, of the often-imitated, never equaled Fear No Weebles.

Let’s get right into it. Please explain how to be funny.

MATT: Being funny is a trick of confidence. Once you’ve got people believing you are funny, you can say almost anything and they’ll take it as a joke.

DARLA: Easy — just open up your eyes and observe.

LEN: What’s funny is out there; it’s up to us to spot it. Being funny is more about recognizing funny and finding the best way to communicate that to someone else.

I think humor is something that occurs naturally in the environment. It probably should be an element, or maybe a compound. (I’ll probably be sorry I said that because if they make it a compound I’ll never remember the formula.)

MATT: Right! Get out there and see what happens. I intentionally throw myself into bizarre and sometimes dangerous situations just for the story. You don’t have to do that, but it might not be a bad idea to get off the davenport.

JULIE: This one’s tougher to swing, but being born to funny parents has benefitted me enormously. If you can do that, you should.

Do you think of yourself as funny? Is “funny” something you try for?

KATIE: I think I’m hilarious. Anyone that has even the smallest, osteoporosis-ridden funny bone needs to think they’re funny in order to really own their style of humor. The more you “try” to be funny, the more you suck at it.

JULIE: I don’t try too hard to be funny because when I do, I bomb.  See, right now I’m trying really hard to think of ways to be more entertaining, and I’m getting performance anxiety.  That’s not funny.

In general, though, I do think of myself as funny.  That’s one of the few traits I’m confident about.

DARLA: I grew up with five brothers and had to survive somehow. It was either make a joke or get put in a headlock and suffer the suffocating farts o’ shame. Although I don’t think they thought I was very funny.

I had a cruel childhood. Most humorous people did. Thanks for bringing it up.

I had a cruel childhood. Most humorous people did. Thanks for bringing it up.

– Darla, She’s a Maineiac

JULIE: I was an overweight kid who was the tallest one in her class, with frizzy hair, buck teeth (and then braces) and glasses. I was teased a LOT.  If you’re going to be teased a lot, you better have some good comebacks or you’re doomed.

MATT: As a kid I would tell stories in the lunch room or during gym to make everyone laugh…not a lot has changed since then.

LEN: I don’t think of myself as funny. I’ve had the blog going for a few years now and it still surprises me when people tell me they look forward to reading it. My family is way funnier than I am.

I was born to be a straight man. The real me is quiet. I think most people who read my stuff would think otherwise.

How do you get the funny into a post? What does your writing process look like?

LEN: The most challenging part is developing a topic. Humor is the start of most of my posts. I’m usually writing about something that strikes me as funny, so I see the jokes when I see the topic. More funny concepts come up during the writing itself. My best writing comes when I allow myself to “what if” my original ideas.

When I am writing well, my posts almost write themselves. Being conscious of my process has helped me become a better writer. It also has enabled me to sound more pretentious, like in that last sentence.

Being conscious of my process has helped me become a better writer. It also has enabled me to sound more pretentious, like in that last sentence.

– Len, Blurt

KATIE: Whereas when I sit down, I know what topic I’m going to write about, but I have no idea how or even if it’s going to be funny until I actually start typing.

MATT: I usually begin writing whether I have anything funny or profound to say about a given topic or not. I pick whatever’s been on my mind during the day. If the post ends up being funny, then I might elaborate on a few bits to make it funnier or inject a little fantasy; that’s usually when I incorporate my illustrations.

What about mixing the funny with more serious topics?

DARLA: Tragedy and comedy are tightly connected. There is nothing more freeing than talking about a heavy subject only to lighten the mood with some laughter. I truly believe laughter saves us. However, it’s a delicate process, one that shouldn’t be treated lightly. You have to gain readers’ trust, not alienate them.

LEN: That relationship definitely helps. Being able to write humor on serious topics becomes easier the better my audience and I know one another. Long-term readers come to know my voice as a writer.

Humor in serious topics is risky, but a lot of fun. A big part of pulling it off is establishing with the reader that you don’t see yourself as above criticism. Being able and willing to mock yourself is important when you’re walking the line between levity and going too far.

MATT: I think it also helps to have some ownership of the thing you’re writing about. People tend to get angry when you joke on issues that you know nothing about. It doesn’t make sense to even try and tackle a serious subject if you can’t be frank and open about your experiences.

If other bloggers want to explore humor writing, is it something they can practice? Can someone get funnier?

LEN: Absolutely. But becoming a funnier writer isn’t about increasing your funny, it is about becoming a better writer. Become better at bringing your reader to the moment you discovered something that made you grin.

It’s also important to get over the fear of not being funny. Try. Write it. Put it out there.

KATIE: We’re all always practicing — you have to. The more you practice, the more comfortable you get with your voice, the more potential you have to see more opportunities to be funny. Kind of how Madonna’s voice got better over the years.

Maybe that was just autotune. Whatever, you can’t autotune humor, it just takes practice.

You can’t autotune humor, it just takes practice.

- Katie, Sass & Balderdash

DARLA: You can absolutely fine-tune the funny by writing more and more. Then go back and cut your words down. For me, the more I edit, the easier it is to get my point across and make people laugh. People want to be entertained by your words, not put to sleep by them. Less is more. Let your imagination go to the place where the crazy good stuff comes out — then edit and give it a rhythm.

JULIE: Editing is key. For instance, right now I’m writing a post and I have only a vague idea of the direction it’s going to go in, or how it’s going to be funny. It will probably shape itself as I write, and rewrite, and rewrite

MATT: Even when you’re not writing, work to see multiple perspectives. Having a different point of view while acknowledging others is good comedy maintenance.

Learn as much as possible, too. Intelligent people are always going to be funnier; they know more, so they have a deeper pool to draw from.

JULIE: Smart always makes funny funnier.

Comedy comes in many forms — physical comedy, satire, black comedy, absurdism, stupid pet tricks, knock-knock jokes. What’s the funniest?*

MATT: Satire.

DARLA: Satire.

LEN: Satire.

KATIE: Satire.

JULIE: Satire.

MATT: Satire has to be first because it’s just so damn important. I genuinely doubt that I would want to live in a world without satire.

DARLA: I love it because it boldly exposes the truth and forces you to think.

KATIE: It gives you the chance to really poke fun at something in an exaggerated, over-the-top way that’s apt to ruffle a few feathers.

The least funny?

KATIE: There’s nothing funny about babies or animals acting like humans, because why ruin a perfectly good thing? Animals and babies are only awesome because they’re not adult humans.

LEN: Agreed. Although I think it’s important to point out that a monkey riding a dog is always funny.

(Ed. note: totally agreed.)

If I wrote a Cathy comic, I’d have her kill her judgmental mom and get over her body image problems in the very first panel.

– Matt, You Monsters Are People

JULIE: Nothing is less funny than most prime-time television. NOTHING. Even Gallagher, and he’s not even close to being funny.

MATT: This wasn’t on the list, but I’d like to nominate the “Cathy” comic strip. Cathy never went anywhere, did anything, or had anything important to say about life. She just went to the office, came home, worried about being ugly, and yelled “Ack.” If I wrote a Cathy comic, I’d have her kill her judgmental mom and get over her body image problems in the very first panel.

Any parting thoughts? Make ‘em good.

LEN: Agents: I will write for food. Call me.

KATIE: The most important thing about being funny is understanding that everyone is funny in their own way, and the great thing about humor is it’s impossible to measure because it’s so subjective — so put your ruler and protractor away. As for your audience, come to terms with the reality that sometimes they’ll be laughing with you, sometimes they’ll be laughing at you, and sometimes they’ll be laughing because your shoes don’t match and your fly is down.

MATT: Support thoughtful, creative individuals wherever you find them and practice trying to be one yourself.

LEN: Be grateful to your readers. Acknowledge their comments, and return the favor if they’re writers too.

Thanks, all!

Any questions from the peanut gallery? 

——-

*Note: bloggers were asked to rank the following, from most to least funny: Spit takes, Puns, British-style absurdo-comedy, Prat falls, Gallagher, Babies/animals acting like adult humans, Satire, and Prime-time television. The editors of The Daily Post acknowledge that this is not an exhaustive list and that humor is deeply subjective, although we were heartened to see than “Puns” ranked fairly well across the board.

Photographers, artists, poets: show us ADVERTISING. 

Please note that comments are always closed on daily prompts. Pingbacks are always enabled; if you link to the prompt post on your blog, a link to your post will appear in the list below the prompt.

Simply put, Ming pushes you to think about photography . . . like a photographer. 

Ginza, Tokyo. Sony RX100. (I include camera info to demonstrate that it really doesn’t matter what you use.)

When I was asked to write for the Daily Post, I admit I was a little worried about the magnitude of the task at hand: ultimately my own site is very much about what goes into the creation of outstanding images. And that’s a 600+ article, 1.3-million-word work in progress. That’s obviously not going to fit into the length of your average post, so today I’m going to throw the rulebook out of the window and start again. I encourage you to do the same: regardless of your experience with photography, do the same. Approach this article with an open mind and no preconceptions.

Nadiah. Sony RX100

We live in a visual world. Text used to be the message medium of choice, but since most people don’t have the time or patience to digest large reams of text, increasingly dense information packages have become the norm — video, for instance, is at least 24 images per second. And then there’s sound and HD to pack in even more information. This means that digital media — blogs, sites, etc. — now has two challenges: to attract attention, and to hold it long enough for you to say what you want to say.

Photographs can do both of those things: firstly, your images have to be punchy enough to have immediate impact, and secondly, support the rest of your text. (If you want to go even further, truly excellent images should stand on their own and tell a story without any supporting text; too often captions/titles and images get separated online. But I’m getting ahead of myself here…)

Shwedagon, Yangon. Leica M Typ 240

There are several common misconceptions about photography: it’s about art, it’s about light, it’s about subject. All of those things are true, but even before all of that, it’s about people and psychology. (Even photographs that have no people in them!) The photographer makes an interpretation of the scene/subject; on the other end, the viewer makes another interpretation. The very best photographs and photographers convey their ideas cleanly to the end viewer, while still leaving room for imaginative interpretation. This means that to make a good image, you need to be able to recognize one.

Look at lots of images, by famous photographers and otherwise (my site’s curated reader Flickr pool is a great place to start for inspiration). Take your time, and pause when one catches your eye. Ask yourself why: what is it about this image that attracts and holds your attention? It might be the quality of light, the angle, the composition, or the subject itself — or even all of the above. File it away for future reference.

You may not be able to replicate all of the things you see, but being consciously aware is the first step.

Photography imitates art. Nikon D800E

There are a lot of elements involved in creating an outstanding image. I have a very detailed analysis on my site, but the basics are fairly simple, and something I always begin with in my workshops. Realistically, there’s only so much we can consciously think about when shooting, and these are the critical items:

Lunch. Olympus OM-D

1. Quality of light.

You can make stunning images of a very pedestrian subject if you’ve got great light; the opposite isn’t true. In fact, if you have no light at all, you can’t make a photograph, period. Good light has only one defining quality: directionality. This helps us to project a three-dimensional world into a two-dimensional image; the real hint here is to look for shadows. Without shadows, we have no clues as to texture, depth, spatial position, etc.

Changing the direction of the light on your subject changes the way the subject looks, and a good way to understand this is to start experimenting with a posable desk lamp and a small static subject. (If you’re interested in learning more about controlled lighting, I’ve got a series of articles that begins here.)

Start thinking about how light affects your photos:

• Look for sources of light in your shot, natural or artificial.
• Pay attention to shadows.
• Move around your subject — see how lighting changes.
• Take photos with and without the flash.
• Shoot in the morning; shoot in the afternoon; shoot at night.

Absence of light is just as important as the inclusion of it. Omega Speedmaster 9300, Nikon D800E

2. Clarity of subject.

What is the photograph about? If you show the picture to somebody who wasn’t there at the time you took the picture, will they see the same things you do? If the subject doesn’t stand out from the rest of the frame, then it’s not going to be the first thing your viewer sees. Subjects can be isolated by light (or shadow), depth of field, color, texture, and motion (panning). (We’ll cover a lot of these elements later in the series.) Our eyes are drawn to areas of high contrast, brightness, and things that break pattern. Make sure any areas in your image that do this contain something you wish to highlight.

Questions for beginners to ask themselves:

• What is the subject of the photograph?
• How will you draw attention to the subject?
• What else is in your frame? Are these elements necessary for your shot?

Vienna fog: it’s all about the man. Leica M9-P

3. Composition.

This is the art of arranging all the elements in your frame into an aesthetically pleasing way, and a way that draws attention to your primary subject. It covers the relationship or implied relationship — spatial, color, light — between subjects to tell a story. There are many ways you can do this: filling empty space with subjects, finding the right backgrounds or light to make your subjects stand out, and of course careful placement of lines and frames within the composition to lead the viewer’s eye through the image. (We’ll discuss the placement of lines and frames within the composition in future posts.)

At this point, we’re starting to move away from the technical into the artistic: there is a “right” exposure and point of focus, but there’s no “right” composition — only compositions that look right, and those that don’t. This is a learned skill through practice, critical observation, and analysis of other images. (A primer on compositional theory and how to achieve balance — a composition that doesn’t appear to be “empty” in any place — can be found in this post.)

We’ll discuss composition more soon — for now, things to think about:

• Pay attention to the different spaces within your frame.
• Take note of patterns and shapes.
• Look for lines in a photograph, both natural and man-made.
• Look at objects as possible “found” frames, such as windows.

Minimalist architecture. Hasselblad 501C on Ilford Delta 100 film

4. The idea.

Can somebody viewing your image see what you saw in your mind at the time of capture? If not, is it because you didn’t execute it clearly, or because you yourself didn’t know what you wanted when you were shooting? Most often, it’s the latter. This is the toughest of these four fundamentals to master — knowing what you want to shoot before you shoot it. When I’m on assignment, the idea is usually very clear: it’s either whatever the client wants, whatever portrays a certain part of the product in the best light, or whatever elements I need to tell the desired story.

If I’m out and about and shooting for myself, it’s a bit different. I’ll notice interesting light first, then figure out if there’s a composition or subject that works with it, and if so, shoot. If I don’t have these things, I probably won’t bother breaking out the camera. No point in making compromised images, especially if you know they’re going to be compromised from the outset.

Takeaways from the Daily Post editors:

• Ask yourself why you’re drawn to a particular subject/scene.
• Don’t just point and shoot — observe a scene first.
• Look at a potential shot from several angles — then take a picture.
• We all see the world in different ways — how can you convey your own unique perspective in a particular shot?

Sometimes, a smoke is just a smoke. Apple iPhone 4.

In part two next week, we’ll take a look at the little things you can do to make your images stronger — shot discipline, selection — as well as common mistakes and some things to practice for the future.

Ming Thein abandoned a successful corporate career to pursue his passion. Now he’s a professional photographer, writer, and teacher; he specializes in watches/product and architecture/interiors and runs workshops internationally several times a year. He is a member of Getty Images and Nikon Professional Services. His WordPress.com site and portfolio can be found at www.mingthein.com.

Images and content copyright Ming Thein | mingthein.com 2013 onwards. All rights reserved.

Photographers, artists, poets: show us JUMP.

Please note that comments are always closed on daily prompts. Pingbacks are always enabled; if you link to the prompt post on your blog, a link to your post will appear in the list below the prompt.

To participate, tag your posts with DPchallenge or leave a link to your post in the comments. Please be sure your post has been specifically written in response to this challenge; obvious attempts to link-bait will be deleted. We’ll keep an eye on the tag and highlight some of our favorites on Freshly Pressed this Friday.

Yo Mr. White! And Mr. Strunk!

The infamous Strunk and White, purveyors of compositional advice, implore us to omit needless words in our writing. American author Ernest Hemingway, nicknamed “Papa,” embraced this writing philosophy. Known for an unadorned, sparse prose style, he favored short sentences with strong verbs and very few adjectives or adverbs. While Hemingway is well known for this style, he — like the rest of — worked hard at his writing:

Interviewer: How much rewriting do you do?
Hemingway: It depends. I rewrote the ending of Farewell to Arms, the last page of it, 39 times before I was satisfied.
Interviewer: Was there some technical problem there? What was it that had stumped you?
Hemingway: Getting the words right.

– Ernest Hemingway, The Paris Review Interview, 1956

Omit needless words

In writing, it’s important to omit needless words, the cruft that obscures what you’re trying to say to your reader. Never use more words than you really need to communicate — be brutal: remove all the words unnecessary to conveying meaning. Let’s look at one example.

Consider this sentence. There are 19 words. Most of the words are cruft:

In order to fully understand and absorb a piece of writing I must go about reading it many times.

After revising, we’re down to eight words — less than half of the original sentence and the meaning remains.

To understand a text, I must re-read it.

Here’s what we chopped and why. If you’ve got this, then skip this section, collect $200 from Community Chest, and head straight to the challenge below. If you want the details, read on.

• We removed In order to and replaced it with simply, To. “In order to” is cruft — it’s stuffy and sounds like that old teacher with the stick stuffed up his butt. Never use in order to when you can simply use to.
• We axed fully. Stephen King said the road to hell is paved with adverbs. In this case, fully understand is redundant. If you understand something, you fully understand it. Get it?
• We yanked and absorb. Thirty lashes with a wet noodle for bloated waffle. The word understand is all we need. If we understand something, we’ve absorbed it too. No need to repeat ourselves, repeatedly.
• We replaced a piece of writing with a shorter, simpler word that conveys the same meaning: text.
• We nixed go about — taking these words out of the sentence makes it shorter, makes us sound less stilted, and gets us to our verb, read a bit faster. WIN.
• We revised, reading it many times. Changing reading to the simple, infinitive form of the verb, read ensures we’ll have an active construction. Simply saying re-read conveys the idea of reading a piece many times. That two-letter prefix, re does a lot of heavy lifting, and saves us a few words.

Not sure if a word is needed? Remove it and re-read your sentence. Does the meaning hold up? When you see a phrase, think about ways to shorten it, as in our example, “In order to,” becomes “To.” “Reading it many times,” becomes “re-read.” Now, you’ll get the chance to put this in practice with your own writing.

The Papa Hemingway Writing Challenge

There’s two different flavors of the challenge, depending on how much time you have to spend. You can do them both or pick one. Remember, there’s no right or wrong. Just write.

• I want to try this, but I don’t have a lot of time. With your new-found editing superpower, go back through your previous blog posts and pick a nice, crufty sentence, one chock full of adverbs, needless words, and airy phrases. Strip it down to the words required for meaning. Keep going until the idea remains, free of adornment.
• I’ve got the time for a meatier challenge. Hit me. Go back through your blog archives and find a bloated, nasty, air-filled paragraph. Copy it in all its former glory into a new post. Paste it a second time so that you can edit it until it cries for mercy and we can see the strong, shiny, new version below. Strip out the adverbs, replace weak verbs with strong verbs, axe the bloated phrasery that takes up space and yet says nothing.

Editing takes practice. Self-editing can be especially difficult because it’s often hard to see the problems with our own writing. Perseverance pays off — keep at it — the lean and mean prose you produce will be worth the effort. Don’t forget to tag your posts as #DPChallenge.

Looking forward to reading your shiny, new work!

Photographers, artists, poets: show us UGLY.

Thanks for the great idea, Iam Who Iam.

Please note that comments are always closed on daily prompts. Pingbacks are always enabled; if you link to the prompt post on your blog, a link to your post will appear in the list below the prompt.

Read on for the ground rules and to leave a comment . . .

• You’ll get the best feedback if you can be as specific as possible about what you’d like people to respond to or where you’re struggling.
• Please keep all comments civil and constructive. We’re here to help and support one another, not to beat anyone down.
• If you haven’t looked at our Commenting Guidelines in a while, now might be a good time.
• To keep from losing your place in the comment thread while you visit others’ blogs, right-click on a link to open it in a new tab or window.
• No running on the deck.

Photo by t_a_i_s.

Photographers, artists, poets: show us WORDS.

Please note that comments are always closed on daily prompts. Pingbacks are always enabled; if you link to the prompt post on your blog, a link to your post will appear in the list below the prompt.

Photographers, artists, poets: show us RAIN.

Please note that comments are always closed on daily prompts. Pingbacks are always enabled; if you link to the prompt post on your blog, a link to your post will appear in the list below the prompt.

Photo courtesy of Sara Rosso

Curves. I bet you can find curves wherever you are. Show me!

These particular curves are curving arches set in their own curving circle in front of the Hassan II Mosque in Casablanca, Morocco.

Share a picture of CURVES and explain why you chose that picture!

I can’t wait to see what you come up with!

- Sara Rosso

—-

New to The Daily Post? Whether you’re a beginner or a professional, you’re invited to get involved in our Weekly Photo Challenge to help you meet your blogging goals and give you another way to take part in Post a Day / Post a Week. Everyone is welcome to participate, even if your blog isn’t about photography.

Here’s how it works:

1. Each week, we’ll provide a theme for creative inspiration. You take photographs based on your interpretation of the theme, and post them on your blog (a new post!) anytime before the following Friday when the next photo theme will be announced.

2. To make it easy for others to check out your photos, title your blog post “Weekly Photo Challenge: (theme of the week)” and be sure to use the “postaday″ tag.

3. Subscribe to The Daily Post so that you don’t miss out on weekly challenge announcements. Sign up via the email subscription link in the sidebar or RSS.