Writing Funny: Creative Writing and Humor

This course will explore creative writing with a focus on humor. Students will learn about the different types of literary humor and how to apply them to a variety of written works.

This class will be interactive. Although there will be some slides and lecture elements, students will learn by doing. They'll complete weekly writing assignments on their own time and in class they'll participate in interactive exercises.

What Is Funny?
We'll explore the different types of humor and joke structures used to make writing funny.

Premise Generation
How do you come up with funny ideas? We'll look at the process for generating hilarious premises that drive creative written works.

Heightening Jokes
Heightening is the process of building on jokes to build bigger laughs throughout a written work. We'll learn how to use this technique to create written works that get funnier as they go on.

Point of View and Satire
Point of view is the perspective that the writer wants to get across. We'll look at how having a clear point of view can make written works funnier and more engaging and how satire can help achieve this.

Character
Character isn't just for stories. We'll learn how any humorous work can be made funnier with character.

Editing and Punching Up
Editing and punching up a written piece is what makes the difference between something that's a little funny and something that's hilarious. We'll look at how to get feedback and improve humorous writing.