TERRY WILLEY AND CAROL BAKER WILL PRESENT “FINDING YOUR FUNNY” AT THE SLO NIGHTWRITERS MAY MEETING

 On May 12, 2026, Terry Willey and Carol Baker will present “Adding Humor to Your Writing:  Finding Your Funny” at the SLO NightWriters meeting in San Luis Obispo, California.

We’ll discuss how humor can bring your characters to life and make your stories unforgettable.  From Shakespeare to Seinfeld, serious writers have always used humor to deepen their work—and we will show you how to do the same.

Expect to learn:

·       How to add humor to dialogue and narration

·       Classic joke formats and comic patterns (rule of three, running gags, callbacks)

·       Comic archetypes

·       The role of parody and satire in storytelling

·       Ways to make your characters funny, memorable, and real

·       How non sequitur can be an excuse when you make no sense

·       The power of footnotes (1)

We’ll talk about writers, comedians, comediennes, directors, and actors who created comedy masterpieces that still make audiences laugh.

We are longtime playwrights, screenwriters, and storytellers who have been “writing the funny” for decades.  Our creativity extends to film, including two short films, a full-length feature, and an industrial film.  (A funny industrial film.  As funny as a film about workplace safety can be.)

We’ve written humorous scripts and parodies that earned prizes, as well as teleplays that found success in national contests.  Our short stories appear in five anthologies, and we have published two novels:

Time Travel for Fun and Prophet (2023) blends humor, heart, and high‑octane adventure in a story about unlikely heroes, impossible choices, and the strange ways time brings people together.  Rio Cyborg (2025) is a Sci‑Fi/Western about a cyborg drifter who gets drawn into a fight against a ruthless water baron.  (2)

We have drawers of funny stuff that makes only us laugh.  “What’s that man doing in my drawers?”  (If you know which movie that’s from, you know.) (3)

Whether you write novels, short stories, screenplays, teleplays, or love letters (4), this program will help you discover how humor can enrich your craft.  Join us!

More information is available here:

https://slonightwriters.org/events/

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(1)  Carol adores footnotes.  They’re all over Time Travel for Fun and Prophet (and make the story infinitely better).

(2)  Both are available at your favorite bookstore and on Amazon.

(3)  It’s right there on the internet if you look it up.

(4)  We can’t guarantee humor will improve love letters.