Help! I'm too funny!

[Jibar]

Okay, first:
AAAARGGHHH!
Second:
Everytime I sit down and decide to write something, I want to write something serious, romance, gritty superheros, wise ass detective, whatever.
Yet everytime I do, it always ends up funny.
There are always all these odd jokes, wierd plot lines or strange twists that just make the whole composition end up silly.
And it's not funny for me.
I want to write something serious, I really do, but there's always that one joke that snowballs into something.

Help? Please?

[jindra34]

Okay, first:
AAAARGGHHH!
Second:
Everytime I sit down and decide to write something, I want to write something serious, romance, gritty superheros, wise ass detective, whatever.
Yet everytime I do, it always ends up funny.
There are always all these odd jokes, wierd plot lines or strange twists that just make the whole composition end up silly.
And it's not funny for me.
I want to write something serious, I really do, but there's always that one joke that snowballs into something.

Help? Please?

Tip: go into comedy your personal muse is atuned to it... or you can always try your luck at getting a new muse...

[Brickwall]

Tip: go into comedy your personal muse is atuned to it... or you can always try your luck at getting a new muse...

Indeed, I've gone through 3 myself...this third one is working out great for me (at least, as good as she can with the facilities I offer her).

But, yeah, if you can't write serious stuff, don't. That's like having a math geek go into football and then getting angry at himself because he always turns it into math somehow. Bill Amend did lotsa sports/math jokes. They all turned out with sports being the bad choice.

If you're funny, be funny. There aren't enough funny people in the world.

[jindra34]

Indeed, I've gone through 3 myself...this third one is working out great for me (at least, as good as she can with the facilities I offer her).

But, yeah, if you can't write serious stuff, don't. That's like having a math geek go into football and then getting angry at himself because he always turns it into math somehow. Bill Amend did lotsa sports/math jokes. They all turned out with sports being the bad choice.

If you're funny, be funny. There aren't enough funny people in the world.

I've gone through 12... scary but it has more to do with them not being very muse like than anything else...

[Leather_Book_Wizard]

I have also gone through several Muses, mainly because they whisper in my ear once and never speak to me again.

[MrEdwardNigma]

Could I read one of your stories, jibar? They sound good. As for comedy interupting everywhere, don't worry about it, even with comedy you can have a great stroy line, view it as a surplus!

[Serpentine]

Well, there's always editing. Write what comes to mind and then cut out what you don't want. It's what "backspace" is for ^_^

[Mr._Blinky]

Go watch Apocalypse Now. Then Blade Runner. Then Children of Men. Then Hotel Rowanda. That should get all the funny out of your system, plus get you really, really, depressed and tired. And hey, if it doesn't work, you've just watched four excellent films in a row, eh?

Seriously though, watching a serious, depressing movie related to the genre you're writing is a very good technique.

[Catch]

Mm, I know the feeling. It's really easy to fall into the same old ruts that you've been traveling for years.

Oddly, try writing outside your normal style, both in plot and character. Switch everything up and start fresh, with something you haven't done before. Pick an author you've always liked, but never emulated and try that sort of style.

Example: My pieces are always have a literary flair to them, florid prose and elegant description seamlessly interwoven with characters that are far too much like myself. I wanted to try something outside that, so for a short story that I was writing I tried a couple of things I hadn't done before. Writing from a female perspective and taking a page from Hemingway and Palahniuk, I wrote a piece that was stark in the telling, spartan with the descriptions, ambiguous with the character development and was generally grim, dour and was overall spec-freakin'-tacular. So I'm told.

In short, do what you haven't done before.

[Krade]

Though I know nothing of writing, I do know this (or I am at least pretty sure of this):

Douglas Adams didn't mean to make Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy funny. He didn't even know it was funny until one of his friends read it and told him it was hilarious.

[Brickwall]

Though I know nothing of writing, I do know this (or I am at least pretty sure of this):

Douglas Adams didn't mean to make Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy funny. He didn't even know it was funny until one of his friends read it and told him it was hilarious.

You, sir, have made my mind collapse. Congratulations.

[Zephra]

but that's a good thing! you're a natural born funny writer. wow, I wish I could write like that!
don't try to be serious, try to be even funnier. then put the story up here.

[Goff]

Douglas Adams didn't mean to make Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy funny. He didn't even know it was funny until one of his friends read it and told him it was hilarious.

I seriously doubt that anybody who spent the early part of his career working with Monty Python and various members of the Cambridge Footlights would be accidentally funny. Adams had worked in comedy before the original radio series of Hitchhikers, and I'm pretty sure was comissioned to write a comedy script. Apparently he had the idea for the story when he was drunk and hitchhiking in Austria.

And Jibar, if you can't help being funny and still want to write something serious, just try to restrain yourself a little. Every story needs comic relief (much though Terry Goodkind may argue the opposite), even the most ridiculously gloomy of Shakespeare's tragedies has some level of comic relief. I find that wry observations are good for peppering into a serious story without breaking mood, use this sort of restrained humour (by no means just wry) and avoid getting ludicrous, and you will do fine. And like Serp said, there's always backspace. If you like the comic section too much then cut it out and adapt it to another less-serious work.