I
was reading a copy of Writing Your
Legacy: The Step-by-Step Guide to Crafting Your Life Story, by Richard
Campbell, M. ED and Cheryl Svensson, Ph. D., which by the way is a terrific
book that zones in on how anyone can write about their life,, and found the chapter
on how to use humor in your life story to be particularly entertaining and
useful.
Here
are the 12 stages they suggest for incorporating humor to reflect humility
while telling a serious story:
1.
Be
real, and be you. Don’ try to force humor; your writing
will seem stilted and contrived.
2.
Be
wise. Humor is about wisdom.
3.
Be
self-deprecating. You’ll never offend
anyone else if you make yourself the butt of the joke.
4.
Don’t use humor to insult others. Other people
in your life story aren’t suitable for target practice.
5.
Take
charge. Using humor puts you in charge
of the story, especially if the subject matter is particularly dark.
6.
Use
irony. Irony is defined as saying one
thing but meaning another, the difference between the appearance of others and
the reality. Sprinkle it throughout your
life story.
7.
Play
with words. Have fun with words and
phrases as you write.
8.
Find
the right word. Many words just sound
funny and form comical images in your mind.
Look at words like dorky, clunker, or kerfuffle.
9.
Avoid
sarcasm. A sarcastic remark seems to be praising or complimentary, but is actually taunting and harmful.
10.
Use
caution with exaggeration. Keep your story true, and don’t include people or
situations that did not exist.
11.
Explore
the ups and downs with humor. When you tell
these stories about yourself, you are revealing your humanness.
12.
Use
humor for balance. The art of writing
well is about pacing. There is an ebb
and flow to the world we live in. Our
writing is most successful when it stays in sync with this life flow. Use humor in balance.
“Humor,”
write the authors, “generally reflects the truth. It can exaggerate it, distort it, or run over
it, but it usually gives you a sense of “I can see that happening to me,
too.” Bette Midler once wrote: “I never
know how much of what I say is true.” We
have all experienced this on occasion.
But as long as you write what you believe to be your truth, you stay
true to your story. Let the humor in your writing evolve naturally.”
Many
people who write a memoir or autobiography do so because they are famous,
successful, or well established and people want to hear their story. Others write about themselves, though
unknown, because they lived interesting lives. But then there are others who
didn’t necessarily make millions of dollars, have crazy affairs, or live in the
public spotlight, but they have something worth sharing with family, friends,
and those closest to them. Such a legacy
book would do well with humor injected into it, for life is too serious not to
laugh at it!
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Brian Feinblum’s views,
opinions, and ideas expressed in this blog are his alone and not that of his
employer. You can follow him on Twitter @theprexpert and email him
at brianfeinblum@gmail.com. He feels more important when discussed in the
third-person. This is copyrighted by BookMarketingBuzzBlog © 2015
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