On Satire

[jordanisonfire]

Wazzap, YWOers? That would sound kinda weird though... young writers onlineers. Or maybe not? You decide. Sounds kinda piratey. I'm sure all you pirates out there are loving this. Anyway, let's get on with this guide on... -looks at title- on satire. I'll give you a few points first.


The points I talked about above:

1. Know what satire is. Wiki would be a good source for this, but if you're a rebel and don't like the big bad Wiki, just... I dunno. If you don't like Wiki, you gotta be resourceful.

2. Think, do you actually want to write satire, or are you an idiot who thinks they're funny and are a mad-skilled satirist? If it's the latter, then you're a perfect satirist!

3. If you're gonna write it, know it. Nah, this ain't the same point as the first one, it's basically some lame-ass proverb that some smarties think of to make their points in guides seem more attractive. But I ain't like that. So, yeah, back to the point... yeah, satirists must read quite a lot so they know what they're writing.. Familiarise yourselves with cliches. Even easier if you actually know what a cliche is.

Okay, now we done what you need to get started, let's move on to the good stuff. No, not that kinda stuff.

Some more points (who'da thought?):

1. Pick up your pen or pencil and some paper. Helps if you actually have some, too. Or if you're one of these technological whizz-kids they have these days in the 21st century, you may have a computer to type it up on. Much easier.

2. You read your stuff? Okay, let's see... once upon a time, there was a knight who was riding to save a beautiful princess and- STOP! That was wrong. That is not even for satire. Okay, I'll lay down why that's wrong: you've gotta be unoriginal, yet original (yeah, I threw in another proverb, so shoot me). What I just put there has probably been done in satire time and time again. In satire, you usually make fun of cliches like that. But guess what? Just making fun of the same old cliches isn't good stuff anymore. It's unoriginal. It's a cliche piece of writing making fun of cliches. So, think of something to cliche, such as the whole knights-dragons-princess story, but make it an ORIGINAL satire. Not just the original recipe with a few lame-ass jokes thrown in, newbs.

3. Funny helps. Satire is not necessarily meant to be funny, but it helps if it is. Otherwise, it gets quite boring.

4. Contrary to the second point (you're gonna be mad now) you can actually be unoriginal and do a parody. That requires some thought, but not as much as a random satire. But the thing is, you have to choose something that's popular. And most of the popular stuff has been taken up. For example, Lord of the Rings has Bored of the Rings and Harry Potter has Barry Trotter. Don't make parodies of stuff that's already been parodied, it doesn't do well for your street rep. And you don't want some gangstas comin' down yo hood and puttin' a cap in yo ass cos you is unoriginal, foo'.

TO BE CONTINUED
(Dun, dun, duuuuuuuuuun!)

[Andy]

Good guide. Except I--

(Yeah, you probably don't like getting a "but" right after it's posted. But I do like the guide. I look forward to seeing more.)

-- disagree on the point about not parodying anything that's already been parodied. Granted, doing an entire piece of satire focused on LOTR isn't on my to-do list. But perhaps throwing in a few gags at it expense now and then...definitely.

[jordanisonfire]

True, but not an entire book. Maybe writing some comedy literature and having references to LOTR material would be good, but not an entire book. That's what I was saying.

[phobophile]

it has to be funny in a subtle way. dont go right out and say what you mean in a plain old way. get witty. if one has not read the great satirical writers ( dostoevsky, camus), one does not know satire completly. the human conscience plays the largest part in satirical writing.

[jordanisonfire]

I forgot I'd written this. Now I don't even know why I did.

[phobophile]

dont let me kill your satire buzz, shadow. you just need to read more of the genre i think.