What’s Up?

Well hello there, and welcome to the first Seriously Ridiculous letter.

How goes it?

I’ll be cutting straight to the comedy chase in a moment, with some craft talk…

But if you want a quick audio catch-up to keep you company, you can listen here.

Comedy Craft / Story Fiending

Two things I have been thinking about a LOT…

1) The idea of humour as ‘oven mitts’. This came from my Comedy Masterclass guest, writer Andrew Kaufmann. In talking about his family, he said:

‘We kind of use humour as oven mitts. So there's something super-hot on the stove and there's a crisis, it's gotta come off the stove or whatever. Oven mitts are what allows us to grab that and deal with it. I grew up with that. That's what humour is there for. It's still gonna be emotional down the road. But during that moment of crisis, that's a wonderful way to keep the wheels turning, right?’ - Andrew Kaufman

Thank goodness for humour! (Or humor.😊) I love what it allows us to engage with—in stories, and in life.

How do you use humour?

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2) Sometimes you need to write a book one way… to figure out how to write it another way? (And for ‘book’ substitute in whatever your own creative wrangle is.💛)

Old me would have felt pretty awful about this, worried about wasted time, and thinking I should have been able to figure this out in advance. But fortunately, I’ve interviewed many wise guests for my Comedy Masterclass podcast, and their words make me feel better about the whole process.

This is what Michelle Gallen said about her novel, Factory Girls:

‘So when I started writing the book it came out in first person and that was really interesting because it was really angry but alive and vibrant and Maeve’s voice was there from the get-go…

… I had written 127,000 words of this book. And I sent it to my agent and as soon as I sent it to my agent, I went, no, oh God, no, it needs to be third person. And I made her stop reading it and let me rewrite it in third, which she wasn’t excited about because she felt first person was really compelling. But third person gave me just enough space to let her voice be there, but with a little bit of distance.’ - Michelle Gallen

Factory Girls is brilliant, and went on to win the Comedy Women in Print Prize 2023.

And right now I’m re-writing my YA novel, Beth Raises Hell in third person, having started and revised it in first person. (I talk about the why and what in a weeny bit more depth in the audio catch-up here. )

The Flip

This is the What-If-y section.

I think a lot of us creative, questioning types wander around, looking at the world, thinking…What if this…? What if that…? And flipping things on their head.

In the YA novel I’m currently revising (Beth Raises Hell), a ‘what if’ question sparked my core idea: What if you accidentally raised the ghost of your seven-year-old self?

It came in response to hearing Tim Ferriss ask a podcast guest: What advice would you give your younger self?

My brain flipped it: What advice would your younger self give you?

And then I took it further: What if they showed up in person—and were super disapproving? YIKES.

It’s fun flipping the usual script.

Do you do this too? Wander around, what-if-ing the world?

Stash: things I love

Listening to Offloading for Mrs Schwartz (from George Saunders’ collection CivilWarLand in Bad Decline) totally choked me up. But it was also weird and wonderful and funny. I highly recommend it. (The audio version, read by George himself, is fantastic.)

If you want to see more of my comedy skewed reading and watching obsessions, you can find a clutch of them in my Stash.

What have you been loving lately that has at least a touch of funny? I’d love to know.

Dare Bears

There’s a Dare Bear in the novel I’m revising. (A special teddy bear with a bow tie.) At the start of the book, Beth is trying to return him to her ex, along with a note for one last dare. So far the bear has made it into every draft! (Though I cannot comment on whether he lives or meets a grizzly end.) I love me a dare…

So here’s my question for you:
What is one creative thing you could DARE yourself to do this week?

A dare does not have to be big! Just big enough to create a little ooh and tingle.

As I’m sat here typing, I’m thinking about what fun little dare I might like to do? My first thought is that I’ll try drawing Dare Bear, to share next time? I am not a visual artist. (Stating fact here, not being modest). So good luck to me. And good luck to you!

What might you pick? A fun little dare. I’d love to hear what you get up to.

Until next time,

PS: Thanks for reading my first ever Seriously Ridiculous letter. All feedback is welcome, as I only want to do this if it’s useful or fun for you to read. You can hit reply and it will wing its way to me.

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