Why do Barry, Westlake, Evanovich, Hiassen work?

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a_sharp

a_sharp

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I write historicals, but I love visiting this place. Keeps my insanity.

About the title.

Each has found a voice, each entertains for a full-length novel, each appeals to a wide audience. I've tried to figure out what makes their fiction work.

Most humor books are like reading a stand-up routine. Joke collections, encapsulated chapter-length routines (Bombeck). But the four mentioned above (I'm sure there are others) manage to put a real story together, imbue it with lovable, laughable characters, and keep it going for 80,000 words or so. And they don't do it just once, they keep rolling them out.

What have they got that I don't got?
 
JeanneTGC

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Practice. Lots and lots of practice.

Dave Barry wrote a syndicated humor column for YEARS before he ever attempted a full novel. And he said writing "Big Trouble" was the hardest writing he'd ever done.

Evanovich wrote, I believe, a dozen romances before she created the Stephanie Plum character and series.

I believe you find your voice, or voices, by a constant and committed process of actually writing often (daily if possible) and in as many different genres as come naturally, are fun, or interesting to you. When you find the voice that is both funny and the character that can carry that voice through a full novel or series of novels, then it's a great meeting of your creative minds. Some hit that the first time, some don't.
 
a_sharp

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Thanks, Jeanne, I knew about Barry, of course, read his columns for years. Even saw him playing rock guitar with his band in Miami one night. Westlake wrote film scripts (The Sting) and other stuff besides his comical novels.

I'm too chicken to try--or lazy. Maybe both. Think I'll stick with straight.
 
JeanneTGC

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I started out writing historical fiction. Added on speculative fiction -- everything in speculative fiction. Added on humor when a friend said, "you're a writer, for God's sake, write these stories DOWN and sell them!" (She's a great friend. :D)

Current novel series has a VERY humorous voice, even though it's paranormal/science fiction romance.

It all builds on itself. I couldn't have written this novel series before now, because I hadn't written anything humorous, other than my holiday newsletters. Now that I have, it was simple (not easy, simple) to combine a humorous voice within a full novel-length work.

Write, write, write. Experiment. Expand. Grow. You'll be happy with your results.

Oh, and we love anyone who hangs with us in humor. Especially if you tell us we're funny. Then we LOVE you. ;)
 
a_sharp

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It just occurred to me that one thing many of these writers have in common is they write about the hapless. I mean, Westlake's Dortmunder can't get a crime right if his life depends on it (but survives anyway), Stephanie Plum is an accident looking for a place to happen, Hiassen's villains are idiots masquerading as lethal mafia hitmen, etc. It's the incongruous at work.

I guess heavily-drawn characters who are error-prone, of average intelligence, and subjected to wild and incongruous situations make for some pretty funny material. We sympathize with a common crook and a bumbling bounty hunter because there's just enough reality to them that we like them and believe their reactions to just about anything thrown at them.

I don't want to analyze this to death. I'm just looking for some of the ingredients that make funny fiction work.

Now, humorous paranormal science fiction? You go, gal, that's awesome.
 
JeanneTGC

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What I think you're hitting on is that the protagonists are people we can believe in, we can believe they're real. We can see ourselves, or someone we know, doing the same thing. And the protags keep on trying, even when they're screwing up.

It's like the difference between Holmes and Watson. Holmes is uber-brilliant, but most of us don't have relatability to him. But Watson? He's a ladies man and a doctor, yes, but he sees the clues firsthand, too, and he has no better idea than the reader of what's really going on. And he's the reader's entry into the stories.

All back to voice, and finding the one that works for you, and for your different storylines.

Nothing wrong with analysis...sometimes even we hilarious folk need to stop and think. ;) (Whew, thank God THAT'S over!)
 
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