DONNA GEPHART: "12 3/4 Ways to Tickle Young Readers' Funny Bones"
Some hilarious higlights from 2009 Sid Fleischman Humor Award winner Donna Gephart's panel:
-- She provided handouts for everyone with a list of techniques and details to hone one's humor skills.
-- She advises taking risks. "Mine your embarrassment," she said, discussing how writers should not be afraid to talk about real life embarrassing moments.
-- "Embarrassment is funny but humiliation is not," she said. "You want to empathize with your character. Readers want to laugh, not cringe."
-- She gave a writing exercise in which conference goers had to do: List embarrassing things that happened to you or list things that embarrassed you as a kid.
-- She suggested paying attention to the "sound of language" as another tool to write humor. For example, the "K" sound is funny, such as "Chicken is funny. Roast beef is not. Pickle is funny. Cucubmer is not. Twinkie is funny. Pie is not."
-- She also advised using exaggeration and understatement as tools for writing humor. Examples included "Exaggeration: referring to a tropical breeze as a hurricane" and "Understatement: referring to a hurricane as a tropical breeze."
-- Ultimately, she says writers should not TRY to be funny. "Forced humor is no fun for anyone."
-- She also gave a handout listing funny picture books, early readers, chapter books, and MG/YA novels.
It was a packed room where people participated with a lot of enthusiasm to Donna's writing exercises. And yes, there was much laughter!
Yet another shining example of great lectures provided by award-winning writers at the SCBWI national conference.
Posted by Paula Yoo
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By: SCBWI,
on 8/10/2009
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By: SCBWI,
on 8/9/2009
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Blog: The Official SCBWI 10th Annual New York Conference Blog (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
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GOLDEN KITE AWARDS: SID FLEISCHMAN AWARD WINNER DONNA GEPHART
Donna Gephart's middle grade novel, As if Being 12¾ Isn't Bad Enough, My Mother is Running for President!, won the 2009 Sid Fleischman Award. This award is for authors whose work exemplifies the excellence of writing in the genre of humor.
Although Sid Fleischman wasn't able to attend today's award, he wrote a speech in her honor that Stephen Mooser read out loud. Fleischman wrote, "This year's recipient knew at age 14 that she wanted to be a writer. She saved her babysitter money to buy a typewriter."
Fleischman praised Gephart's "irrepressible humor" which was not simply full of "ornamental quotes." He said she understood the true aim of comedy, that it was "tragedy wearing a putty nose."
Fleischman joked that Gephart "... also wins the award for the longest title."
Here are some highlights from Donna Gephart's speech:
-- She screamed so loudly after getting the congratulatory phone call from Lin Oliver and Stephen Mooser that "... I lost my voice for three days."
-- When describing herself growing up, Gephart said, "I was the quintessential nerd... and I still am."
-- "This is the only award of its kind to honor humorous children's books, and it's pretty special. Even though I've been writing humor of different sorts for over twenty years, sometimes it's nice to be taken seriously."
-- Her advice? "If you've ever heard the words 'never' or 'can't,' I have three words for you. 'YES YOU CAN!'"
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