Your Life is Material- How to Write Comedy From Real Life

You laughed out loud in real life when it happened, so can you make the reader do the same when it happens to a fictional character? It is often said that comedy is the hardest genre to write, as humour is not an emotion and often subjective.

But if it made you laugh in real life, and you were verbally able to retell it to your listeners to immediate laughter, why is it hard to find the right words to say on the page? In this workshop, you’ll learn the best way to script comic conversation between characters in your work, adding in descriptive actions and backgrounds that layer the set-up of a laughable scenario.

Hosted by writer Ian Fisermanis, author of “Pierre and The Last Gargoyle of Paris”, this is a participation workshop where you can learn the rules of written comedy. We’ll look at creating the comedy protagonist and their ‘straight faced’ sidekick, and giving them the correct dialogue and scenario – often easier when based on a real experience and we’ll learn how to dissect what really tickled you back then, will help you pass the tickle on to your readers using the correct format for the comedy.

Please note: the venue for this has changed, and will now take place in the Activity Space at Rugby Art Gallery and Museum.