Flogging the Cow...

Heya guys!

Ok! I'm going to try something today that I haven't done in a really, REALLY long time.
*cues drum-roll*

AN ACTUAL POST ABOUT WRITING!

((-ish))

So, my co-worker, I call her ChefRock, came up to me yesterday while I was putting groceries away.


"Hey, vic.  If you come across any big boxes, can you save them for me?"


"Sure thing, ChefRock!  You movin'?"


"Naw, I need 'em for Grace."


Now, I can't remember a Grace.  So, I'm casting my thoughts all about trying to remember if ChefRock has a daughter.  When she says, "It's so weird.  Just the other day she was walking around, and now, she's all headless and everything."


WHA-BAM!  *splat*  <--  My jaw hitting the floor.
*scrapes off floor, reattaches to face*


"Who the heck is Grace?!?!?!   What happened!??!?!"


"Oh, she's my cow.  We took her to be slaughtered the other day, and we need boxes for the pieces."  ChefRock says.

It only takes a second for the shock to melt away into hilarity, and I'm laughing loud and unhinged, and probably a little too much.  But that's cool, because I love to laugh.


So, now I'm stuck at work (actually in ANTARCTICA- aka the freezer- which I hate!) trying to occupy my mind and I decide I'm going to make a writing exercise of this whole incident.


And one thing I really need to work on is humor, because I think humor- when done well- can take a story from very good to freakin' awesome in ten sentences flat.  


So, I decide I'll work on a eulogy for poor Gracey, but all that will come out is poems, so I go with that.  I  gave myself only a couple minutes to work on each and then I had to move on.
You guys want to hear my favorite Grace limerick?
Yeah, I thought so!

There once was a heifer named Grace,

Who was charming in all of her ways.

But we took her to the packer.

He sliced her.  He hacked her.

Now My!  How good our Grace tastes!

But I didn't think that was enough, so on each box I put aside for ChefRock, I wrote a secret message such as:


Viva La Bovine!!! (or maybe not...)
You will be remembered... by my TUMMY!!!
mmmmm.... cow
and
Grace, she's what's for dinner.

And I gotta tell you, guys.  Not only did it amuse me, it cracked up ChefRock... and Jodi, and Janey-Poo, and Suzie-Q.  And it was so much better than just stacking up a bunch of empty boxes.

When drafting my first story, I focused on the atmosphere, the setting, the character development, the plot... the basics.
The empty boxes.
And for what was a first draft, I still don't think it was horrible.
But it was nowhere near publishable.
We need to remember that coming off Nano.
Because those boxes need labeled (as creatively as possible)  and filled with their chunks of dead cow, and delivered to the famished farmers, to actually truly serve their purpose.
Otherwise they're just hunks of used cardboard.
Our stories can teach, build empathy, show an argument, change a heart, change a mind, change a society, whatever... but only if they're read.  Only if they're seen.
And to help our readers stick with us, our novels should be at least to some extent entertaining.
There is no one magic ingredient to make your work entertaining.  AND making your story entertaining does NOT cheapen the work, it enriches it.
Entertainment can be found in great writing, and moving plots, challenging philosophical questions, tricksy mysteries, heart-lifting heroes, and heartbreaking romances- all kinds of sources.

But for me, the most entertaining element of story telling is humor.  Even if just in small doses.

I've never been a funny person... but I think I'm getting better.  Because now at work everyone expects me to entertain them, which is fun to do.  But I wanted to share with you the few tips I've learned about humor.

But this has been long already, so- I guess we'll get to that Monday.  :)
Have a lovely weekend, guys!