Writing Funny in Unfunny Times by Lois Winston
I write two humorous amateur sleuth series, The Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mysteries and The Empty Nest Mysteries. Currently I’m working on the second Empty Nest Mystery—or I’m trying to. It isn’t easy to write humor when there are so many horrible things happening in the world. I live eighteen miles from Lower Manhattan. My husband, son, and daughter-in-law all commute into New York every day. Fourteen years ago I watched in real time as the second plane flew into The World Trade Center and as both buildings collapsed. I couldn’t write for six months. It’s hard to be funny when the world has turned grim and deadly. I’m dealing with a similar anxiety now as events unfold around the world. Somehow it feels wrong to write about murder—especially in a humorous voice—given what’s happening. And the very last thing I want to do right now is write something dark and grizzly. I wrote dark and grizzly prior to 9/11. I can’t do that anymore. I’d much rather make people laugh than s...