Random stories...comedy or just plain silly?

My first question is this--your characters are quirky, but are they also interesting? In other words, are you writing just to be whitty and clever, or are you working to make them three-dimensional and sympathetic (or dastardly)? Second, do you put these characters in situations that would stimulate a reader's interest, situations that tell a good story? If yes-and-yes, you probably have something worthwhile in the works.

Well, comedy stories tend to win fewer awards than serious fiction....on the other hand, Terry Pratchett's won some fine awards. And say what you will about Hitchhiker's level of respect, but it's been around forever and forever (well; since it came out, anyway) and people fervently adore it.

If you tell a good story somewhere in there, I think you'll do fine. Don't worry too much about your level of respect, anyway. Rodney Dangerfield never got none, and he did okay.

Comedy aside, as long as you have a good story and the characters are interesting, you should be fine.

I've never read Hitchhiker's, but saw the movie and thought it was awful. That's neither here nor there. The point is, if you look at any really truly silly movie, it also has a plot and interesting characters. Being funny just to be funny rarely works. You need a solid foundation. As you said with fantasy, there are serious subtexts. You might be able to get away with pure silliness in a movie*, but in a book you have to have more than just a series of jokes to keep the reader interested. You have to have a plot that moves forward to the climax and ending. Then surround this with jokes and clowns.




*Offhand, I can't think of any really silly movies that didn't have a good plot. Monty Python and the Holy Grail had the search for the Grail. Blazing Saddles had the railroad coming through a town. Airplane had food poisoning. Animal House had a food fight.

One of the entrants in my "Hatchlings" anthology caught my attention immediately with the title "The Mysterious Happenings on the Corner of Elm and Pickleberry." It turned out to be a very funny ramble along with some very proper, very 19th century "gentlemen." Rather like a comic Jules Verne. It charmed my editor as well and just had to be included in the book. I'm hoping the author will finish up the book he's working on; I really, really want to read more.

So, yes, I think there's a market for it.

I hope there is anyway, I love a book with not only a good plot, but some humor along the way. I hope we don't lose our taste, and our market, for them.

KiraOnWhite said:

Phew, thank god about that! Don't really understand how most readers are able to finish a serious piece of literature...they seem to sound all philoshopical from start to finish without a 'break' and the humour is barely recognizable. Nowadays, people don't generally believe that a teenage humor novel has got a 'subtext' in it ( referring to those uncommon ones such as 'to gain strong powers, you need a strong heart', not the cliched ' always believe in hope/light' and the likes)...sometimes its as if random stories are always targeted for little kids =(

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I think some of the comedic novels (My love of Pratchett seems to be matched on this board by PeeDee) and "Hitchhiker's Guide" are able to hide their philosophizing better through their comedy and get the point across in a much sneakier, more subtle manner. Which causes the reader to consciously bypass it but it's still there, simmering in their subconscious.

Take, for instance, the opening of "Hitchhiker's Guide" is hilarious when a person considers the duality of Dentarthurdent's home being destroyed to make way for the bypass and the beauracracy(is that even a word?) involved is the same as for the entire planet being destroyed. So the absurdity of Arthur's plight becomes the absurdity of the entire planet and works to make people go "okay, WHY does anything governmental have to be so sloggingly stupid to begin with?"

Think about "Hogfather" by Pratchett (what, you've never read it? Poor you!) and all the subtext in it. Then think about how it makes you think after it makes you change your shorts full of urine.

Rabe...

KiraOnWhite said:

Reiterating the question...are silly stories like these acceptable to society, or instantly marked off as mindless entertainment? A possible example would be " The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy".

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An what's wrong with "mindless entertainment" anyhow?