Don't underestimate the power of humour in good writing

When writing, it is easy to cover the whole gamut of emotions ranging from sadness, jealousy to plain disgust. However, humour can be easy to overlook. What most people think when they hear the word ‘humour’ is a rip-roaring comedy. However, it can be subtle and it can also aid you in telling the most effective of stories.

Take for example an artist creating a painting. If they use too many ‘dark’ colours and don’t vary it with ‘bright’ colours, then the painting is going to almost certainly look dull. In the worst-case scenario, it could be hard to make out the features of what they’re painting. Hence, a painter must create something called ‘contrast’ to make a painting more interesting. ‘Interesting’ is what we’re aiming for in our prose. Contrast can be thought of as the interplay between ‘light’ and ‘dark’ to create something that stands out.*

Being an artist in addition to a writer, I consider the technique of creating prose to be similar to creating a painting. Use too many ‘dark’ moments in fiction and the resulting writing will be dull with not much contrast. Contrast is the key word. By adding humour, the darkest moment stands out better. You can observe that in real life people use humour to make themselves feel better during a period of hard luck or tragedy.

Humour can be used to lighten up the tone of your writings.  We've all read or seen a book or a movie that had been too dark and could have used a little bit of humour to lighten up the tone. Case in point is the batman vs superman: dawn of justice movie. I found it dull and humourless although I adored the action sequences. The critics seemed to agree with me with the main consensus being that the movie was too dark including the cinematography and the script.

I am not suggesting that you add a joke to a serious scene such as when a character is dying just to lighten it up (although you can if you're aiming for a comedic effect or the scene requires it). Like a painter, the writer must modulate humour to create the best level of contrast that the work needs.

*When I talk about ‘bright’ colours, consider colours that signify summertime such as yellow, bright green and light blue. Winters are associated with ‘dark’ colours such as purple, black and red. Note, I’m not an expert in colour theory but I know from my experience that each group a colour is likely to signify different emotional reaction in an observer.