Presenter: Welcome to Ask the Author, the podcast where kids get to ask published authors how they create their stories.
Presenter: Today we are asking Sophy Henn all about humour and how she makes her stories funny.
Sophy: Hello, my name’s Sophy Henn and I write and illustrate children’s books. Today I’m going to be talking about writing funny stories and a series of books I’ve written and illustrated called Pizazz.
Presenter: The book is about a superhero who doesn’t actually want to be a superhero.
Presenter: Pizazz has an amazing superpower, but she thinks it’s completely embarrassing.
Presenter: But when she discovers someone who wants to destroy her local park, Pizazz has to decide whether she finally uses her powers.
Presenter: Pizazz is full of funny moments and silly disasters, so it shows how humour can make big superhero problems feel funny.
Presenter: Let’s hear Sophy read the start of the first Pizazz story.
Sophy: “OK, well, I’m nine and a quarter, almost nine and a half, and my name is Pizzazz. Yes, you did hear that right. My name is Pizzazz. And yes, it is completely embarrassing. And no, I don’t think it’s a proper name either. But as with most things around here, it really doesn’t seem to matter what I think about it. With a ridiculous name like Pizazz, I should probably be a magician, or a pop star, or a really smelly perfume. But I’m not any of those things. What I actually am is super. Not super as in brilliant or terrific or even very good. I am super-super, actually super - As in superhero with powers and stuff. Eye-roll.”
Presenter: We’ve got questions for Sophy about how she writes to make her readers laugh. So let’s Ask the Author.
Presenter: How do you know what humour you want your character to have?
Sophy: Oh, well, I think about that character, and it’s like a bit of an actor, really, because you’re thinking about how that character thinks and feels and everything like that. So once you’ve kind of got to know your character, I think you start to know what makes them laugh. So you’ve probably got different friends that find different things funny, and you know what makes them laugh. Or something that might make your friends laugh, might not make your mum laugh. Who knows? But it’s the same when you’re writing. So you get to know that character, and then you get to know the sort of things that would make them laugh.
Presenter: Is it depending on their name? is that what you base their emotions and feelings off? So, if their name was Happy and Jolly, would you make the story about that character happy and jolly, or not?
Sophy: Well, sometimes, if their name’s Happy and Jolly, I might make them extra happy and jolly to be a little bit annoying, maybe, and you could find some funny things in that. But also, a lot of humour comes from naming something in one way. For example, calling Pizazz, “Pizazz”, so it’s all showbiz pizazz! But then, actually, her character’s not like that at all. She’s quite a bit shy, she gets a bit embarrassed about things, and she likes to eye-roll a lot. So sometimes you find the humour in calling your character one thing, but then them actually being sort of the opposite of that. And you can have lots of fun and make lots of jokes in there.
Presenter: Have you ever made a word up and then all of a sudden everyone’s just saying it like it was a word in the first place?
Sophy: I wish! I really wish! I’m going to now. I’m going to try and do that. No, I don’t think I have. But I do know that in one series of books I wrote, they were picture books about a grumpy panda called Pom Pom. And I used the word ‘harumph’ a lot in that because that’s what Pom Pom said. And I know that lots of people said that they used that word a lot more because I’d put it in that book. So when someone looked like they might be getting a bad mood, they would say, oh, are you “harumphing”? And that might sort of diffuse that situation. And also with Pizazz, using the word ‘eye-roll’ a lot to indicate when she’s feeling fed up. I know, again, that lots of people have started saying ‘eye-roll’ just to say, “look, ok, I’m starting to get fed up now - ‘Eye-roll!’”. So, yes, I haven’t invented one yet, but I’d like to think “harumph” and “eye-roll” are used more because of me.
Presenter: How do you know that when you write a story that it’ll make someone laugh, when it could just not, and it could bore someone?
Sophy: Well, that’s always the risk, isn’t it? What I try and remember is that my stories aren’t going to make everybody laugh because we’ve all got different senses of humour and we all find different things interesting. So you can’t please everybody - so that’s number one. I think, first of all, I try and make myself laugh when I’m writing the stories. And if I read it back, maybe reading it back for the third time or fourth time, and I’m still chuckling a little bit. I know it’s a good thing. But I also have some very trusted people that I get to read my books as well. My daughter being one of those, the original Pizazz, I get her to read my books. And if she finds them funny, then I know I’m probably ok. But it’s ok, you know, you’ve got to have a go. And if it doesn’t work the first time, keep trying.
Presenter: How do you know if that joke would be suitable for that character’s personality or humour?
Sophy: You’re absolutely right. Some jokes only work for certain characters and certain voices. But I think, again, it’s about getting to know your character and knowing what they like, what they don’t like, where they live, and knowing their personality. Just in the same way that you know what makes your friends laugh, you’ll start to know… what makes that character laugh or what that character would do to make you laugh as well, and also, if its has to be in a certain voice or a certain tone or a certain volume. You can use the size of your text to indicate shouting, so you can use capital letters or big letters. I do that in a lot of my books, in Pizazz and Bad Nana. I use different types of text to emphasise certain words. And also you can make little notes, talk about the way that character said those things, whether they said it angrily or they giggled it - those sorts of descriptions can help the reader know how that joke is being relayed.
Presenter: Thanks so much Sophy, we just have one final question for you.
Presenter: Do you have a top tip for us about how we can write funny stories?
Sophy: My top tip for writing funny stories… well it’s to keep your ears and eyes open for funny things that happen and remembering to note those things down, using them when you need to write a funny story. A lot of the things in my books are actually based on real-life things that have happened, or real-life people that I have met and funny moments that I’ve had, and I’ve then sort of changed them all a little bit and changed the characters around. But it’s things that made me laugh that I’ve then kept and reused and hopefully they’ve made some other people laugh as well.
Presenter: Today, we learned how an author uses humour in her stories
Presenter: And how the right words at the right time can make readers laugh.
Presenter: I’m going to try adding some humour in my writing.
Presenter: There are even more authors sharing their story secrets in other Ask the Author episodes on BBC Bitesize. Go and explore.
Description
In this episode of Ask the Author, Sophy Henn answers pupils’ questions about humour and how writers make their stories funny.
Sophy talks about her Pizazz books, which follow a reluctant superhero who finds her powers totally embarrassing.
She explains how humour can come from characters’ surprising names, real-life moments and even made-up words.
Listen to hear Sophy’s top tip on how to add humour into your story!
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