Funny Ha-Ha

Last night I went to a play, The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told, and laughed for almost three hours straight. Or maybe "straight" is not exactly the word to use in this particular context -- this, after all, was the story of the world through the eyes of Adam and Steve, and Jane and Mabel! But this fundraiser for the Asheville Area HIV/AIDS coalition was amazingly funny, intelligent, thought-provoking, and entertaining, and it just affirmed what I have been feeling for weeks now:

I want to write funny.

Which is a good thing, since apparently I can't keep the funny out of my writing even if I try. I received several comments from contest judges about the strength of my "voice" throughout my manuscript and how the sudden forays into humor didn't seem quite in character with my wounded heroine and hero. Well, that's just not true -- in the strange world that is my mind, chaos and adversity are handled with humor either during, or after, even the darkest moments of existence.

Everything has a humorous side, albeit at times a very dark humor, and everything is also its own story. That's how I live, and that's how I write.

So, now what?

This throws my plan right out the window (no problem, god, glad I could give you a giggle). I guess it would help if I knew where the Golden Pen thing stands (they were supposed to announce final standings yesterday) and whether I am going to get a request for a full manuscript or not. If not, I am really leaning toward diving right into the chick-lit/women's fiction market. Hey, over the past week, I have come up with several book ideas -- and one that is just downright hilarious. Just talking it out and writing it down in an e-mail had ME laughing out loud and it was like watching the whole idea evolve like a movie in my head.

And that's the way I want writing to be -- fun, exciting, effortless (well, in the mind anyway). If I wanted writing to be morose and plodding, then life would have to be also, and I am SO over that. Not to mention that I have lived way too long by my "laugh your way through/out of it" philosophy to go back now.

So I'm going to write funny. Funny ha-ha. And f**k 'em if they can't take a joke.