So, I think we’ve all realized by now that I’m not one of those people who is SUPER SERIOUS, ALL OF THE TIME about her writing. That’s not to say I don’t write serious stories, because I definitely do…I just frequently laugh at myself while doing so. To be honest, I often find people who always take things seriously (assuming it’s not a life-or-death situation) to be exhausting, but hey, you do whatever you need to do to get through your days.
I won’t make any comments as to whether or not I’m “funny,” as I know how subjective humor is. Maybe I’ve made people laugh here a few times over the years, maybe I’ve just made them roll their eyes at my flippant attitude before they move on. For what it’s worth, while I have my “fiction writing” voice, as we all do, my “writing about writing/blogging” voice here is pretty close to what real-life me is like. I’ve said before, while I’m sure I’m not everyone’s cup of tea, I like to think I’m fun to be around in most situations. But again, who knows.
On to the writing about writing part! I’ve written in a whole lot of romantic sub-genres, but I don’t know if I’ve ever set out to write a true “comedy.” Some of my books/stories are intended to be lighthearted and maybe a little fluffy, and even in some of my darker stories, the occasional odd situation or snarky remark slips through. (That might be tied to my “real me” voice, but I digress.) And now that I’m thinking about genres, I’m starting to wonder—can you even write “just” a comedy without including some sort of sub-genre? (Romance, mystery, adventure, etc.) Like, is “contemporary comedy” a thing just like “contemporary romance” is? Clearly, I am not among the people getting paid to create categories on Amazon.
(I just took a tiny break from writing this blog post to take a look. Lots of romantic comedies out there. There was a “wilderness” comedy on the first page of Amazon hits, which I would file under “adventure.” And Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine was also near the top, which I did enjoy, and parts were funny, but I don’t know if that was the point of the story? Moving right along.)
Outside of my little website here, I have written stories explicitly intended to make people laugh, in the form of fanfic. I’d even venture to claim I was successful, in that my old Dragon Age and Mass Effect comedies were always my most popular fics, and they’re still getting hits and comments and bookmarks and everything 7-8 years later. (UGH, I’M OLD.) Recently, I’ve been experiencing the same trends with my Fire Emblem: Three Houses fanfic. So, I know I *can* do it, but I’m also aware of the contextual differences between writing something humorous in an existing universe vs. starting from scratch with everything.
I’m still making great progress with my new project, Elemental Forces. I’m still not sure if we’ve established it can be a “comedy,” but it’s definitely on the more lighthearted end of the spectrum. I’m not attempting to land joke after joke after joke, but I made an effort to set the tone early on, and that tone (hopefully) is “this book will make you smile and feel good.” As I mentioned in my last post, it’s heroic fantasy and, of course, romance, since I consider myself a romance writer first and foremost. Since it’s romance, there will be some emotional and poignant scenes in addition to the fun ones, because I’d argue you can’t really have a romance without those, but THAT is another topic for another post.
In the meantime, I’ll switch back to my Word document now, because I am still writing up a storm and it feels GOOD! (Might as well end on a “smile/feel good” moment!)