The LTUE Conference (Life, the Universe, and Everything) this year in Provo, UT, was again a wonderful event. I thoroughly enjoyed my time there, attending excellent panels and presentations, catching up with old friends, and networking with many new people. One of the highlights was moderating the panel on writing humor: “I’m in it For the Laughs!”

Joining me were exceptional panelists Bob Defendi (author and humorist), Michelle Witte (agent and author), and Michaelbrent Collings (bestselling author of humor and horror).

One hour was not nearly enough time for that group of entertaining personalities to really cover the art and craft of writing humor. As moderator, my biggest challenge was just making sure we stayed mostly pointed in the right direction, and not getting too distracted by the funny stuff getting shared.

Among many other things, we discussed how authors can develop the skill of writing humor. It can be done, and even if someone’s not spontaneously funny in person, they can write hilarious stories.

Bob followed up after the panel with this excellent post on the specifics of many of those techniques we touched upon during the panel. Check it out. It’s a fun read, with lots of great information.

I also referenced the Humor Scale that I had blogged about here in the past. Check out that post for some great information on the different types of humorous characters and where they fit on the humor scale.

And here’s a few other links to great resources, which I promised to share after the panel:

Scott Adam’s Dilbert blog, where he shares tons of great advice about writing humor.

The Writer’s Dig by Brian Klems – Another very good blog post, with even more links to other articles.

Another Writer’s Digest page that does a great job discussing the writing of humor.

And finally, yet another great blog about writing humor from Now Novel.

So check out all these great resources, study funny books, and practice.

I look forward to reading the results.