by Emily-Jane Clark
We are excited to bring you another fascinating article on writing, this time from author Emily-Jane Clark, who shares her thoughts and tips on writing comedy in fiction, and her process on writing for children.
“Can you write a joke about this building that looks like Donald Trump?” This was just one of random things I worked on when I was a TV comedy writer!
Before I was a children’s author, I wrote for television shows such as The Mash Report, Mock the Week and The Jonathan Ross Show, where I learnt a lot about joke-writing and how to use comedy to engage an audience, both of which were really useful when I started working on my funny series for children – The Beasts of Knobbly Bottom!
Writing jokes about feminism, politics, pop culture and parenting, may be very different to the humour in my The Beasts of Knobbly Bottom books but actually the process I use to come up with funny ideas is the same!
One of my favourite ways to come up with a comical situation is by using my ‘Wouldn’t it be funny if?’ technique. I will take an ordinary everyday occurrence or current issue and think of a way to make it silly, fun, or sometimes absurd! For instance, what if … toilets came alive and were really cross that people were weeing on them! Or, what if the King accidentally did a massive burp during his Christmas Day speech or even, as I put in my first book, wouldn’t it be funny if sheep turned into mean gangster vampires?
Writing jokes about feminism, politics, pop culture and parenting, may be very different to the humour in my The Beasts of Knobbly Bottom books but actually the process I use to come up with funny ideas is the same!
While it was a lot of fun creating comedy for grown ups, I find you can be even more bonkers when writing for children, which is one of the reasons I wanted to write a kid’s novel. That, and the fact I love a good bum joke, which tend to go down much better with under elevens…
Another form of humour I love to write is observational comedy – I did a lot of this for The Mash Report and the Daily Mash, so I really wanted to incorporate it into my books! As a mum of two young daughters, I realised that some of our discussions (OK, arguments!) are pretty funny. Children often try to find a loophole in their parents’ rules, think very literally or just be plain cheeky, and this can be hilarious. Therefore, I tried to include this in the relationship between my Knobbly Bottom mum character, Lucy, and her two daughters, Maggie, and Lily. It was important to me that their interactions were realistic and relatable and make parents laugh along with their children.
I love writing comedy for adults, but as a mother on a permanent quest to make her children laugh, and a massive kid at heart, creating Knobbly Bottom and all its weird and wonderful characters really has been a dream come true.
Emily-Jane Clark
Emily-Jane Clark is a TV comedy writer, author and part-time drama teacher whose passion for stories and making children laugh inspired her to turn her hand to funny children’s fiction. She has written two books for children aged 8 – 11 THE BEASTS OF KNOBBLY BOTTOM: ATTACK OF THE VAMPIRE SHEEP and THE BEASTS OF KNOBBLY BOTTOM: RISE OF THE ZOMBIE PIGS (out on the 4th January).
The Beasts of Knobbly Bottom: Rise of the Zombie Pigs by Emily-Jane Clark will be published in January by Scholastic.
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PaperBound Magazine is an online magazine for the young, and the young at heart. We are dedicated to showcasing authors and illustrators for children’s and young adult fiction and we strive to deliver inspiring content, uplifting stories, and top tips for young and aspiring writers yet to burst on to the literary scene.
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