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How To
How To Be A Humor Writer In 27 Easy Steps
Remember, tragedy plus time equals comedy.
3 min readFeb 13, 2022
- Have a miserable, lonely childhood. Being bullied is a plus. The best humor is forged as armor.
- Pay attention to the details. Funny stuff is happening all around you. Really, it’s an embarrassment of riches. Shamelessly eavesdrop on conversations. Keep paper and pen on you if you have to.
- Have friends and loved ones with thick skins. Because everybody is fair game. Especially your defenseless children who have no say in the matter.
- Have a thick skin yourself. Ignore the rejections. Seriously, just ignore them. I wasted years being discouraged by rejections. Fuck ‘em.
- Don’t chase the money. I used to think I was a failure because I wasn’t making money as a writer. I was missing the whole point. I think it was the Dalai Lama or maybe Kung Fu who said, “Write, and they will come.”
- Don’t make promises in your headline like “How To Be A Humor Writer In 27 Easy Steps”. Rookie mistake.
- Be clinically depressed. Self-destructiveness is actively encouraged in the humor field. Do you want your obituary to be all sunshine and rainbows (unfunny) or a tragic backstory of pain and perseverance (goldmine)?
