Writing funny and smart is tough

Being funny and smart is something a girl would tell you if she likes you. It’s by far the two most popular personality traits that are attractive to either sex.

Admit it: nobody likes a dumb bore. That does mean a person who isn’t funny and not smart isn’t good. In fact, such people might be the most loyal, dedicated and hard working kind of people you meet, precisely because they aren’t funny or smart.

But I’m not talking about being funny (or smart), I’m talking about writing funny and smart stuff. When I read something that strikes me as smartly humorous, I laugh out loud (no, not saying the word LOL, but actually laughing audibly) and instantly look to subscribe to the author’s other writings.

Unfortunately, not many people’s writings make me laugh, but those that do receive my highest regards, respect and appreciation. Because writing that’s funny in a clever way just seems like the best kind of writing to read.

That may be the case for a lot of other people, probably most of them. And then there’s the uncanny part of this where authors try to be funny, and this purposeful intention shows in their writing, which makes it stale and uninteresting, even repulsive.

Oh how I wish I knew which authors made me laugh, because I’d buy all their books. The feeling you get when you laugh because of somebody else’s writing can be described by only one word: satisfaction. Intense satisfaction.

But it’s tough, being like that. My friend Shahzad, who writes on a blog called Laconic Lines, really struck me as a writer who had a great potential to be the kind of author that writes funny and smart stuff. His first post made me crack up in pure lightheadedness. He doesn’t write much now, but does post things once in a while (a long while).

I really want to learn to, and become proficient in writing funny and smart. I’d really like to be the kind of writer that cracks people up and makes them genuinely laugh through their clever humour.