BootsnAll Travel Community

I'm experiencing something really frustrating right now. I'm trying to write a funny travel story. Now, it's one of those stories that i thought would write itself. it involves a 50-year-old lao bus, machetes and a dead cow! comic gold, right? whenever i tell this story, it gets big laughs. but writing it, it's just...eh.
anyone else have this happen? what did you do to get over this hump?
Ayun, i'm partially looking in your direction since you wrote such a funny travel book... but i'd like to hear from everyone.

Hey, check out my blog:

Central America At Last

This may or may not help-
record yourself telling it to someone, and then write out the words. part of telling a story visually is the added emphasis of exaggeration of both the arms and the voice and then also facial expressions. you will see these 'holes' when you look at the story written out. then work on that skeleton, layering it with descriptions, word play, etc.

just a thought
Court

thanks, court. that's exactly what i've been trying to do. i tend to be a very animated speaker (hey i'm from the northeast) - i have to try and bring that animation to my writing - too much time spent writing serious academic and political things.

Hey, check out my blog:

Central America At Last

Another tip...

Try thinking of why you thought these aspects were so funny. Does a phrase come to mind, or a line of dialogue? If so, just write down that one bit. It's kind of an answer to the question, "How do you eat an elephant?" Answer: "One bite at a time."

If you can get down a couple of bits here and there, that can help rev you up.

Or...

Tank up on coffee/ hard liquor/ both, and just go mental on the notebook. Just go crazy, and worry about making it cohesive later. That's why we have rewriting. And more coffee and hard liquor.

Speaking of coffee and hard liquor, oh my oh my, it's almost beer o'clock...

Cheers, Anthony

yeah, coffee, booze, insomnia...
Sometimes a longwinded section gets a lot funnier if I distill it into 2 sentences...and it makes me feel very butch to hack so mercilessly, speaking of machetes.

I also think everything's funnier when the narrator is the lowest status character in terms of knowing what's going on. Mock yourself as hard if not harder than anyone else in the tale. The monkeys, the beggars, the officious ticket seller, everyone should know more than you do.

Good luck!

No Touch Monkey! And Other Travel Lessons Learned Too Late by Ayun Halliday
http://www.ayunhalliday.com

thanks everyone! i sat down yesterday with a lot of coffee and cut out about half the story.
i realized also that i was really mocking the wrong people. one of the things i loved about your book ayun, is that you do such a good job of mocking yourself. it's a hallmark of good travel writing.

the story is about something i observed, rather than something i really took part in, so the tone was a bit condescending, which really wasn't what i was intending. i tried to mock myself as an observer more. hope it worked.

anyway, i'm gonna sit on this story for a few days, then maybe send it to the bootboys (and girl).

thanks again.

sarah

Hey, check out my blog:

Central America At Last