If you go here you can see the wonder and the glory that is my friend Tiff’s new website.  She designed it all herself, and it’s pretty darn cool in my humble estimation.  Go.  Marvel.  Enjoy.

I was over on duotrope the other day, and I found a listing for an anthology called Dark Jesters: An Anthology of Humorous Horror.  They want real horror fiction – not stories making fun of the genre – but with a humorous angle, maximum length 2,000 words.  I’d love to try to write a story and submit it.  The low word count would keep me from getting too complex, and since I’ve been stuck on the writing lately, a deadline might help me get my ass in gear.  It probably wouldn’t be accepted, but it would be fun to try.

But you see, I have this problem.  I’m not sure what’s funny.  I don’t mean that I have no sense of humor.  I find a lot of things humorous and I love a good laugh – often at my own expense – but I have a hard time defining what makes something funny.  And my sense of humor is different than a lot of people’s.  For example, when I used to work at the book store, a bunch of us were in the back room, looking for a particular book.  Our manager was digging through a box, and was just about to move it over and go on to the next one, when my friend looks over and says, completely deadpan, "Don’t forget to lift with your back."  I burst out laughing, and a second later he did, too.  Everyone else just stared at us like we were idiots.

So, what makes something funny to you?  Does someone falling on their face make you laugh?  Or are you more about the witty banter and the caustic comebacks?  Do you prefer your humor to be slapstick or intellectual, dry British style or raunchy toilet humor?

p.s.  Credit for the title of this post goes to Tiffany.

So I’ve had this idea in my head off and on for about two years now.  The first time I tried to write it, the idea was too contrived and extremely heavy on back story, and I spent too much of my time trying to shoehorn everything into the shape I wanted it.  Obviously that isn’t the way to write a story, but I couldn’t get the first incarnation out of my head in order change it around, so I put it aside and started on something completely different.

A while later I decided to give it another try.  There was a lot less shoehorning that time around, but although the protagonist had the same basic background as the first time, the plot itself was much softer, leaning more toward cozy territory than I liked.  So I put it away a second time, knowing I’d be back at it sooner or later.

A couple of weeks ago I decided it was time to take another crack at it.  But this time I thought it might be a good idea to do a bit of an outline first.  That way, I can realize I’m on the wrong track before I write 20,000 words.  So now I’ve got my outline, which is very basic, and my main characters, which are the same characters that I started out with.  But this time I think I have a plot that fits.  It’s relatively simple, compared to the first one, and has almost no back story, but it’s got a much more dangerous feel to it than the second, which is what I was aiming for.

But now the doubt is creeping in, and I’ve started wondering if this is the right idea after all.  So, if there’s anyone out there who’s been in the same boat, I’d love to hear your take on this.  How do you know when the story you want to write is a good one?  Is it just a gut feeling?  Do you take it on faith?  Or do you just not worry about that and write the story anyway?