Humor-writing with Elissa Bassist

Short Humor & Satire Writing

Are you looking for ways to make friends as an adult and also write humor and satire? In this 2-day workshop experience, we’ll break down the short comedy piece to write, rewrite, and publish our own.

While there are many forms of comedic writing, from sketch to Sedaris, in this class we’ll focus on the kind in The New Yorker’s Shouts & Murmurs.

We’ll cover the foundations of comedy writing (premise, structure, speaker, tone of voice, target, point of view, and deviating from reality) and every comedic trick that writers can use in all writing, including personal essays, novels, and dating profiles.

Plus, short humor is the best gateway to comedy writing as a career or hobby.

There will be readings, infinity handouts, and brainstorming exercises to bring out what you have to offer as a writer and joker. Day 1 homework will be to write a short (150-500 words) piece (parody, satire, character monologue) to share and workshop for compliments on day 2.

After two days, everyone will write/be funnier and will know how to conceive of, draft, polish, and submit short original humor and satire, but if not, it’s not my fault. BYOB.

Class takes place online on October 19 and 20.

Tragedy Plus Time

To paraphrase Joan Rivers: Your own suffering has the potential to be very funny. And to poorly paraphrase a lot of writers: Art is the opportunity to turn the worst things that have happened to you into some of the funniest.

Turning tragedy into comedy is hard to do, but there are a lot of ways to pull it off. In this four-week workshop we’ll talk about how, and then you’ll do it yourself or blackout trying.

Week 1

Look forward to discussing:

• How great writers write “traumedy”
• How your own experience, expertise, obsessions, embarrassments, and hardest moments are enough to tell a story (but not enough to publish it)
• How new devices can turn a diary entry into a piece of publishable writing (using structure, persona, style, silliness, time & space, and more).

In class you’ll brainstorm to get in touch with your baggage. Your first assignment, which you won’t share in class, is to draft your tragedy, major or minor (300-1,000 words).

Week 2

In class, we’ll pitch ideas about how you’ll repackage your tragedy. The class will compliment you and help you develop your idea.

The second assignment (not to share) is a handful of writing exercises designed to enliven and evolve your writing.

Week 3

You’ll put into practice the new devices we break down in class to craft 500-1,000 words that we’ll workshop in week 4. The goal in reworking your tragedy into a comedy (or at least a more entertaining tragedy) is to make readers laugh as you break their hearts. Happy endings will be thrown out.

Week 4

We’ll workshop in a respectful, supportive environment, and we’ll also gossip about publication, rejection, and best therapists in the area. Every student will leave workshop as a funnier writer and healthier person. If not, then you took the wrong class.

Class takes place online on November 18, 25, December 2 and 9.

Enrollment is limited to 12 students.