This week: Punchlines and Pathos Edited by: Jayne  
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| Hello, I'm Jayne! Welcome to my storytelling corner. My goal with these newsletters is to explore the techniques, themes, and genres that make short stories so captivating. I aim to be informative and a bit of fun, and I hope to spark your curiosity and inspire your own writing journey. Don’t forget to check out this issue's curated selection of short stories! |
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If someone looked at my little home library, they might conclude that I’m not a serious reader. They would be wrong, of course, but I could see how they could jump to judgment. After they submit their findings, whether or not I challenge them to a reading duel highly depends on what kind of cookies they brought with them. No cookies at all? Ten bonks on the head with War and Peace (once I retrieve it from the door it’s propping open).
The reason I tend to forgo hanging on to highly emotional books and stories is twofold. First, I tend to give books away. I have limited space, and it’s reserved for my ‘take with me to a desert island’ favourites and books yet to be read. Second, heavy books, especially the ones that leave me bawling my eyes out and binge-eating the aforementioned cookies at midnight, rarely make it to the keeper shelf. Mostly, it’s because they’re good enough to share, but partly because I generally don’t enjoy putting myself through the emotional turmoil twice.
Of course, not all serious stories are sad. Some are scary. Some are dark. Some don’t give you a chance to breathe by design, while others simply don’t know when to give the reader a break, much to the reader’s detriment. Sometimes, a touch of comedy can provide a welcome relief and a new perspective on challenging themes. The trick is to weave comedy into the narrative without making it feel out of place or dismissive.
It isn’t about making your readers laugh at the material in front of them, but instead to offer a chance to recenter themselves, connect with your characters, and return to the deep stuff renewed.
How to Use Comedy to Enhance Serious Themes
Using humour to contrast expectation versus reality can sharpen irony’s impact. A dose of wit showing the divide between what is and what should be can reveal contradictions and flaws that might otherwise be missed or come across as heavy-handed.
Kurt Vonnegut’s “Harrison Bergeron” uses absurd scenarios and dark humour to underline the story’s dystopian warning.
Humour can make serious moments or imagery more impactful, or frame things in a new way, allowing readers to draw new conclusions for themselves.
“A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” by Gabriel García Márquez isn’t exactly known for comedy. Still, there are moments in the story that are dryly absurd. For example, how frail does an angel have to be for the rain to knock it down? Or how a doctor is less concerned with the angel’s wings and more about why everyone doesn’t have them.
Another aspect of using humour is to take the macabre and make it relatable. Wit, clever dialogue, quirks, etc., can take a very intense and sometimes off-putting story and make it more approachable. Okay, yes, I said earlier that "it isn’t about making your readers laugh at the material in front of them." I stand by the statement because this isn't what you're doing. Your reader is laughing at the presentation and laughing along with your approach to the story. Admittedly, it's a subtle difference. The payoff to this story crafting is by invoking this kind of laughter, you make the story somehow darker than it may have been otherwise, because most people know it shouldn't be funny, but they can't help themselves.
Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man is Hard to Find” uses a stark contrast between humour and violence to explore self-righteousness and divine grace.
Finally, a little levity provides dimension to characters who are otherwise a little one-note and is a great way to get your reader emotionally attached to your characters. Little quirks, misunderstandings, wit, and clever dialogue can lighten a story without undermining its core.
So, don’t be afraid to let your stories acknowledge their own seriousness. A touch of humour can make even the heaviest stories feel approachable; that might be all your audience needs to keep reading along.
Happy writing!
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Short Stories: March 05, 2025 Issue [#13016]
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