Make ‘Em Laugh: Five Funny Favorites on the Art of Humor Writing

As a rule of thumb, a funny blog draws readers. Humor connects us, brings perspective to serious topics, and exposes deep truths. We “Like” posts that make us laugh, share them on Facebook, tell our friends about them, and eagerly await each new opportunity to guffaw.

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.

Community Pool

The Community Pool is for those of you looking for input, whether on post ideas, writing, blog design and layout, or anything else. If you have a post, page, or idea you want to bounce off someone, leave a comment. Your fellow bloggers can then click through and offer input either on your site, or in the comments here (feel free to indicate which you’d prefer).

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

Quick Tip: Not To Be

We’d all like to think that our thoughts transfer from our brains to the keyboard in precise, punchy, perfect prose — but anything we write benefits from a once-over (or twice, or thrice-over). When editing, we clarify specific sentences and hone our overall message.

A key step in editing eliminates unnecessary words. Unnecessary words drag your writing down; since they don’t contribute to your message, they throw a roadblock between your thoughts and the reader. Finding and nixing them moves readers from “Hmm, this seems interesting!” to “Genius!” that much faster. One simple way to do this? Vigilance against weak “be” verbs.

Posts We Loved: “foodface – my friends and what they ate”

Every week we read scads of amazing content via our WordPress.com Reader — everything from personal think pieces to political diatribes, travelogues to photo essays. Sometimes a post makes us stop in our tracks and read (or view) it again. We’ll take a closer look at some of those pieces and what made them stand out, in the hope that we can all learn something about how to make our blogs the best they can be.

One of the pieces that really stuck out for me as a fascinating experiment, this week, was “foodface – my friends and what they ate (part two).” I was drawn in not just because the photographs in the post are beautifully inventive and really nicely executed, but also because they embody something I think everyone hopes for in a stand-out post: arresting imagery, a different take on familiar themes, and fascinating ideas that add up to more than the sum of their parts. Here’s the lowdown.

Community Pool

The Community Pool is for those of you looking for input, whether on post ideas, writing, blog design and layout, or anything else. If you have a post, page, or idea you want to bounce off someone, leave a comment. Your fellow bloggers can then click through and offer input either on your site, or in the comments here (feel free to indicate which you’d prefer).

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

Quick Tip: Focus Longer Posts Like a Five-Paragraph Essay

While blogs are great places to toss up quick thoughts, lots of bloggers also use their sites to showcase in-depth posts — take a look at the WPlongform topic in the Reader, and you’ll find everything from personal essays to meticulously researched academic papers. Longer-form pieces give you the opportunity to fully flesh out a thought, exploring all the nuances, but they can be challenging to write; often, the longer length seems like an opportunity to include every related idea, until you’re left with a precarious pile of content that doesn’t quite jive.

Okay, maybe that’s just me. But on the chance that it’s you, too — or if you’re new to longer-form writing and want a little guidance — one of my favorite ways to stay focused is that old elementary school standby, the five-paragraph essay. It’s not for every post, subject, or writer, but it can be a helpful tool for organizing your thoughts.