WOW. Big amazing powerful epiphany moment here. I’m taking a 6-week online course with Jess Morrow called Invincible Summer that started June 1st. I’m finally getting a chance to read the ebook for the week. And it mentions the “For the Girls” ebook, so I stopped to read that one. And I got to page 5 where it talks about a girl who watches sketch comedy and should be writing them, who wrote a satire in school… I identify with her, although in my case, the parodies and satires got high grades in college where I was an English Lit major.
I’ve struggled with writing because I have an awesome novel idea in mind that I frequently think, and these are my exact words here, “This novel would be brilliant in the hands of a more talented writer.” I know, I know. I am selling myself short by not believing in myself and my talents, blah blah blah. But maybe that’s not the problem!
In reading about this girl in “For the Girls,” I realized that my problem is not that I am not talented. It’s that although I love to read dystopian YA fiction, that’s not where my talents lie. I am funny. I am not saying that to be conceited, because it’s true. I have a great sense of humor, and I love to make people laugh. So why am I trying to write a dark dystopian novel, even if it does have an interesting premise? I am passionate about the story. I think it could be truly great. But… I’m much more adept at writing things that are funny.
And THEN I started thinking about WHY I don’t write more humor, and realized it’s because I think that to be taken seriously as a writer, I need to write serious things (duh, right?). I enjoy funny books, but I don’t consider them “serious” reading material. If someone asks what I’m reading, I don’t want to tell them I’m reading something funny, I want them to think I’m reading something “real.” So instead of continuing to try to write serious things, I need to find some really good funny books so I can change my thought that all humorous books are mindless “fluff.” (Note, I don’t feel that all comedic movies are mindless fluff, just books. Weird.)
Soooo…. any suggestions? I especially love kids and YA books, but anything funny will do.
A Desire to Get Creative 
There’s a lot of humor out there that isn’t fluff … but I think you’re right, that there’s kind of an opinion out there that it is. There’s so much humor buried in good literature. Anne Lamott is one writer who makes me laugh out loud.
So glad you got some insight! Maybe you could do both? I don’t think they’re mutually exclusive. There are usually characters that provide comic relief. Amd Robert Fulghum writes wonderful essays that will make you laugh out loud, and two pages later, you’re crying. As far as YA books, I liked Meg Cavot’s Mediator series.
This probably doesn’t really answer your question but George Carlin, Jon Stewart, and Ellen DeGeneres are really smart people.
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I love AHA moments. I’ve had a few myself. Yours was a really good one. I agree with Claire Lopez. I think you should do both. You never know how they might evolve.