Okay, so my recent story crashed and burned. About a month ago, I was writing a story which I honestly love - I love the characters, I love the plot...But the whole thing was dragging. It wasn't any fun to read or write. So anyway, I came back to it and realised that the problem was that the whole thing took itself WAY to seriously. I mean, I had different emotions, but whether it was a happy scene, a sad scene or a fighting scene, it was way to serious. I made the whole thing monotonous and drag on. So, my question is...how can I add some levitiy and humour into a story, even in serious scenes? I honestly find writing humour really difficult, so any advice would be welcome.
If you aren't good at it, you'll only make matters worse. Of course, you won't get good at it without practice. But some people just don't have it in them. Humor is difficult.
I agree that humor seems to be one of those things that either have or don't. And if you don't it's impossibly hard to learn but one thought I had was to find an author who has that 'it' factor and pick through their books. Study how they do it and try to emulate it.
Tone will probably help you more than straight-out humor. I know that's vague, but throwing a pun in the middle of an otherwise seriously-toned narrative is only going to feel inappropriate (well, might work for dark humor) and even more forced. Sherman Alexie is a man I've always admired because even though he writes "literary fiction" (more often than not the victim of a problem like this) he never takes himself too seriously. His stories are always a little aware that they're stories, first and foremost, and nothing more. And he does it without selling you short of the seriousness of the subject too--he lets the subject speak for its own seriousness and just writes the story. Others might be able to give you better suggestions, but his first collection, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, might be worth checking out just to see that in action.
