Humor is subjective, but sometimes it is a much needed reprieve from the drama of your story. However, it is very difficult to write it. It’s hard to know whether or not your jokes will land, but here are some tips that may benefit you as you write them.

Don’t try too hard. It never fails that when a writer is trying to be funny, it’s obvious, and the joke falls flat. Don’t try to force a humorous moment. A lot of humor is found in things that seem accidental or as if it wasn’t meant to happen. You can try to replicate this in your writing with offhanded comments from your characters, writing in side-eye moments from your characters, or simply describing a character’s facial expression.

Make your humor seem natural. Does it sound like something a real person would actually say? This is often where writers go wrong. There is a pressure to be funny when writing humorous scenes, but this pressure can make our writing feel awkward and forced—especially when it comes to dialogue.

This brings me to my next tip: Test your jokes out on the people around you. Do they crack a smile or chuckle? Or do they grimace? When jokes feel unnatural or really staged, it’s harder to find them funny. And while your jokes will technically be staged because they are planned and written out, there are ways to make them feel more natural. By saying them aloud and allowing yourself to fully picture it playing out, it will be easier to help the humorous scene flow. And you can see live reactions from the people around you to see if it really is humorous and not just a scene that feels random or out of place.

You should also know the type of humor you want to portray and practice writing it. If you want your character to specialize in deadpan humor but have little experience hearing it or writing it, you should probably practice it before trying to publish it.

Your tone when writing humor is also important. If your tone isn’t very lively or even sarcastic, your joke has the possibility of falling flat. For example, if your character is always serious and finally cracks a joke, it could be seen as deadpan humor because the tone of the character is serious. This can potentially aid your attempt at humor, especially if your audience wasn’t expecting it.  

Writing humor is difficult and requires both patience and practice. Even watching stand-up comedy specials, reading comedic plays, or watching comedy movies can help you understand how humorous situations come across to the audience. You can also see what makes jokes fall flat, what makes them seem unnatural, and what makes them land. If you are not confident in your humor, you can even try to take a stand-up comedy class. This can help you work on your verbal delivery and presentation which you can use in your writing. Although writing humor seems daunting, you should implement it in your work to offer lively and upbeat scenes. Try these tips out and see how it goes!