Devoted to publishing, publishers and to those who craft the written word

There are writing handbooks for almost everything--novels, short stories, memoirs, etc.; but as far as I know, nobody has ever explained how to write a humorous book.

Reading Jeffrey Yamaguchi's mocking look at corporate working environments, Working For The Man, I saw the rare opportunity to find out how to write a humorous book. 

Yamaguchi runs the happy-go-lucky blog, 52 Projects, highlighting crafty projects on the web, including the community memory archive at StoryCorps, his own writer-centric Influences Project, and the creative writing MFA Handbook.

Today, he's our special guest on my deceptively simple feature, Five Easy Questions--teaching us how to outline a long-form humor book without going crazy.

In the spirit of Jack Nicholson's mad piano player, I run a weekly set of quality interviews with writing pioneers—delivering some practical, unexpected advice about web writing.

Jason Boog:
How in the heck did you outline this book? It's a handbook, there's no plot, no solid characters (except your writing personality). Any advice for a writer looking to outline and write this kind of humorous handbook? Who are the writers we can read for inspiration in this genre of Humorous Handbooks?

Jeffrey Yamaguchi:
Outlining on paper was not too hard, but once all the material was written, actually organizing the material in this book was very difficult. Continue reading...

And hey, this is not a book that is too complex – it’s an offbeat work humor book, and still, it was difficult. It went through several organizations and reorganizations, and the editor, Meg Leder, was really instrumental in helping me get it right.

I had a fairly relaxed approach, I wasn’t so hung up on making everything fit into a certain place. If I thought  something was funny, but maybe it didn’t quite fit under a certain heading or in a certain chapter, I just felt like we should stick it here or there.

hat is an attitude that needs to be kept in check. So I would say that getting good feedback can really be helpful. Sometimes what makes sense to you as the writer of the material can easily be constructively critiqued by an outsider’s perspective, and that criticism serves to achieve better organization.
 
I think it can’t hurt for any writer to peruse the humor section, or books in general, for organizational advice, but at the same time, it can be confusing as well. The material you write is going to dictate what makes sense, and it’s more about working through your own material to make the pieces fit.

So I think fresh looks at your own material and your own  outline, and reviewing your goals for the book will be more helpful.