Tag Archives: irony

Health, Spiritual, Writing

Laughter Is Good for the Body, Mind, and Spirit!

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two women smiling; one telling a funny story
Thank you, Unsplash and Surface for allowing me to use this photo.
“Laughter Is Good for the Body, Mind, and Spirit!” by Joan Y. Edwards
There are comedians who make money being funny.  Some of my happiest moments of relief are when I have been able to laugh at myself. Many times it is because I realized the part irony played in this trick I played on myself. Laughter is good for the body, mind, and spirit. I try to remember that when life plays its tricks on me.
For instance, the summer after my 30th year of teaching, 30 years of checking stacks and stacks of papers of every subject imaginable for elementary school: Reading, Math, Spelling, Language, Writing, Science, Social Studies, and Handwriting, In the early years, I taught art, music, and physical education, but the county hired special teachers for those subjects at this particular moment in time.
That summer I got a job with Kelly Services answering phones. I said to myself, “If I get a job answering phones during the summer, I won’t have to check papers.
in 1993, Kelly Services sent me to work near the airport with Piedmont Airlines who was merging with US Airways at that time. Each week they trained different Piedmont Airline Flight Attendants to use the new protocol in serving on the US Airways planes. At the end of the week, they gave each attendant a written test. My job was to order a cake for the end of training celebration and…dun to dun…to check their test papers.
What? But my plan was perfect. Sometimes you make plans and it turns out a little different. My Choice: Get upset or roll with the punches. I tried to look at the bright side. I loved answering phones. I liked interacting with the people. I liked ordering the cakes. And their test papers were grids: they had colored in circles and an answer key to place over the test paper to see if they got the answers right. No reading of long paragraphs. No checking of long division to see where a student made the error. Plus, it was only once a week.  Hip Hip Hooray!
What makes you laugh? Jokes, situations, surprises? The irony that plays tricks on you in life? Unexpected comparisons? What is your favorite cartoon?
Please leave a comment and share with me what makes you laugh.

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Joan Y. Edwards, Author
Copyright © 2009-2024 Joan Y. Edwards

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Here are some of my favorite resources that make me laugh.

  1. .”What’s So Funny: The Science of Why We Laugh:” https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/whats-so-funny-the-science-of-why-we-laugh/
  2. The Odds /Laughter Alley by Bill Harvey ( Behold Comics)
    https://www.beholdcomics.com
  3. Peanuts by Charlie Schulz
    https://screenrant.com/best-peanuts-charlie-brown-comic-strips/
  4. Blondie by Chic Young
  5. Dagwood with his sandwich from the comic strip, "Blondie" in Wikipedia.
    Dagwood with his sandwich from the comic strip, “Blondie” by Chic Young in Wikipedia. By Grand Comics Database

    https://comicskingdom.com/blondie

  6. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=20888925
  7. Calvin and Hobbs by https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Watterson

 

Writing

Use Irony. It Grabs Readers’ Attention

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“Use Irony. It Grabs Readers’ Attention” by Joan Y. Edwards

Use irony. It grabs readers’ attention.  

What is irony?
Irony is a figure of speech in which words are used in such a way that their intended meaning is different from the actual meaning of the words. Angela Janovsky states that irony shows a discrepancy between reality and what appears to be true.
There are many forms of irony. I’m going to discuss three of them. To learn about all five of them, see Irony on TVTropes.org: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Irony.
Write. Revise. Add irony where it’s appropriate.
Verbal irony is when someone says one thing, but they mean the opposite, definitely not what they said:

  • If you are mixing cement for a sidewalk and you spill the cement in the road. If your boss says, “Good job, Tex,” it means the opposite, this is verbal irony.
  • It is verbal irony when someone says, “What a beautiful view!” overlooking a huge dump with rats and smelly garbage.
  • It is verbal irony when someone says “I love you, too” when they are holding a knife to your chin.

Situational irony is when actions have an effect that is different than what was intended, is a deviation from a pattern, or deceptive appearances.Therefore, the outcome is contrary/opposite to what was expected.

  • For instance, it’s situational irony when Ben is chuckling at the misfortune of a man. However, unbeknownst to Ben, the same misfortune is happening to him.
  • Wizard of Oz‘s plot revolves around a situational irony of Dorothy, Tin Man, Lion, and Scarecrow going to the Wizard for things that they already had and Oz wasn’t really a wizard.
  • It’s situational irony with unintended consequences in Pretty Woman when the boutique owners wouldn’t sell Vivian any clothing, it was not their intention to deny themselves lots of money in sales.

Dramatic Irony is when the audience knows something that a character does not know.

  • For instance, in a murder mystery, the main character might not see the bad guys following him, however, the camera shows the audience a man with a gun who follows the main character close around the corners.
  • In My Cousin, Vinny – The audience knows that the police arrest Billy and Stan for shooting an attendant at a gas station. Ironically, these teens believe they arrested them for stealing a can of tuna for which Billy forgot to pay.
  • In Home Alone, at the beginning, the audience knows that the cop is a thief dressed like a cop, but Kevin’s family doesn’t know it.

Carson Reeves, a screenplay reviewer says, “You’ll have a huge advantage if your concept contains irony.”

Blake Snyder says, “The number one thing a good logline must have, its single most important element is: irony. Irony gets my attention. It’s what we who struggle with loglines like to call the hook, because that’s what it does. It hooks your interest.”

Screenwriters say the logline (pitch) has to have irony or contradiction in it to grab movie-goers attention. The same can be said for the pitch for books.

When you show in your book pitch that the main character receives the opposite of what he wanted, it pulls people into it. It makes the character more human. Readers relate to these characters because they have also experienced receiving the opposite of what someone promised them or the opposite of what they expected as a result of his actions.

I’ll bet your story already has a little irony. However, you may not have flaunted it in your pitch (logline, short summary, blurb). Take a little time today to revamp your pitch to include the irony that is present in your story.

Please leave a comment. I’d love to hear examples of irony from your favorite stories and movies!

References:
LiteraryDevices Editors. “Irony” LiteraryDevices.net. 2013. http://literarydevices.net/metaphor/ (accessed January 28, 2015).

“Irony,” TV Tropes, http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Irony
“Situational irony.” Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com Unabridged. Random House, Inc., http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/situational irony 

Celebrate you.
Never Give Up
Joan Y. Edwards
Copyright © 2015-2019 Joan Y. Edwards

 

Writing

Plots Need Believable Consequences

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“Plots Need Believable Consequences” by Joan Y. Edwards

A great plot in your fiction novel must have believable consequences in the world you create for it. Otherwise, your story falls off the deep end. Even though you may know that your story needs believable consequences, you may not have noticed they weren’t as believable as you thought.

Sometimes, if you’re like me, you create unbelievable consequences and happenings for your characters. You need a gauge that lights up and goes “BEEP BEEP BEEP” when you put a character in a far-fetched situation or consequence.  If you don’t have one of these gauges and can’t find one in your local bookstore, how do you keep the events in the flow of your story natural, believable, and true to character? Perhaps a look at what is the difference between natural consequences, logical consequences, and unrelated man-made consequences that are neither natural or logical will help you:

  1. Does what happens to your character as a natural consequence for his chosen actions?
  2. Is what happens to your character as a result of his action a logical consequence set up by another person…the consequences for breaking a law of an antagonist, bully, family, parent, teacher, organization, church, county, city, country, or society? (who makes up their own rules and consequences)
  3. Is the consequence or result of his action neither natural or logical but a man-made punishment unrelated to crime decreed by a bully, family, parent, teacher, organization, church, county, city, country, or society (who makes up their own rules and consequences)?

In an article “Natural and Logical Consequences” on Kansas University.edu website it states that D.B. Pryor and T.R. Tollerud say that that natural consequences are outcomes that are not planned or controlled but happen as a result of behavior.  (Pryor, D.B. & Tollerud, T.R. (1999). Applications of Adlerian Principles in School Settings. Professional School Counseling, 24, 299-304.)

Jerry Webster in his About.com article, “Consequences, Not Punishment,” says that a natural consequences can be dangerous, for instance, when you play with fire you are going to get burned.

Logical consequences teach a lesson because they relate to the behavior. If a three-year old rides his bike in the street, the parents take the bike away for three days. If you do not do your work and a boss fires you, it’s a logical consequence.

Dr. Laura Markham says that punishment is imposing something painful (physically or emotionally) on a child in the hopes that he will behave as we’d like in the future to avoid more punishment. If our child hits and we respond by spanking, sending him to his room, or rescinding his screen privileges, that’s a parent-imposed consequence, otherwise known as a punishment. It may or may not be a logical consequence.

According to Robert K. Merton, purposeful action can have unintended, unanticipated, unforeseen consequences both positive and negative:

  • A positive, unexpected benefit which is sometimes called luck, serendipity, or windfall.
  • A negative, unexpected detriment that occurs in addition to the desired effect of the policy.
  • A perverse or ironic effect that is the opposite or contrary to what the character intended and/or expected. For instance, instead of making it better, it makes the problem worse. Or instead of making it worse and stopping someone, it makes their path easier.

When you use unintended, unanticipated, and/or unforeseen positive and negative consequences for a character’s actions, it adds pizzazz to your manuscripts. It puts unexpected twists and turns of the plot in your stories that heighten the interest of readers.

What is literary irony? Oatmeal.com and LeastTern.com say there are three types of irony:

  1. Situational Irony- when the reverse of the expected happens or when the person you least expect to do something, does it – such as: It is ironic that Cinderella gets the prince.
  2. Dramatic irony happens when the person watching the movie or the reader of a story is aware of a situation, but a character does not realize it.  In Romeo and Juliet the reader knows that Juliet isn’t really dead, but Romeo doesn’t know it. Dramatic irony can be a source of tragedy, comedy, or tension.
  3. Verbal Irony (Language Irony) happens when a person says one thing but means another…the opposite of the truth. For instance, after his wife went on a griping kick, the husband says, “My but you’re in a good mood.”

I hope that studying these different views of natural, logical, consequences and punishment which may be logical or decreed as an aim for control you may be able to put your consequences into a category or figure out a better consequence for the action your particular character takes and what happens to him as a result. Add a dose of irony to put a little layer of oomph in your story.

7 Questions to Make Sure Your Plot Has Believable Consequences:

  1. What would happen to me if I took this action?
  2. Would the consequences be different if I did this somewhere else – in a different environment?
  3. Are there unwritten, unspoken, unknown rules and consequences? Are they natural, logical, or neither?
  4. Does your story show natural consequences for your character’s actions?
  5. Does your story show logical consequences for your character’s actions? Decided by: Self, Bully, Parent, Teacher, School, Church, State, Country, Society
  6. Punishment, neither natural or logical? Decided by: Self, Bully, Parent, Teacher, School, Church, State, Country, Society?
  7. What result or consequence do you or others expect for the character’s action? Does this happen or does something different and unexpected happen as a result of a character’s actions? Is it situational irony, dramatic irony, or verbal irony?

Resources:

  1. Jerry Webster. About.com. Special Education. “Consequences, Not Punishment:” http://specialed.about.com/od/managementstrategies/a/Consequences-Not-Punishment.htm
  2. Sara Bean, M.Ed. “Five Areas to Let Your Child Face Natural Consequences:” http://www.empoweringparents.com/5-areas-to-let-your-child-face-natural-consequences.php#
  3. University of Kansas.edu. “Natural and Logical Consequences.” http://www.specialconnections.ku.edu/?q=behavior_plans/classroom_and_group_support/teacher_tools/natural_and_logical_consequences
  4. Least Tern.com. “Literary Terms: Irony of Situation, Dramatic Irony, Irony of Language:” http://www.leasttern.com/LitTerms/literary_terms.htm
  5. The Oatmeal.com. “3 Kinds of Irony:” http://theoatmeal.com/comics/irony
  6. Robert K. Merton. American Sociological Review:“The Unanticipated Consequences of Purposive Social Action:”
  7. Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irony
  8. Laura Markham, Phd. “What’s Wrong with Consequences to Teach Children Lessons?” http://www.ahaparenting.com/parenting-tools/positive-discipline/Consequences_Punishment

I hope you enjoyed reading my blog. Good luck with the publication of your books! Please leave a comment. Thank you.

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Never Give Up
Joan Y. Edwards, Author
Copyright © 2014-2019 Joan Y. Edwards
Flip Flap Floodle Will this little duck’s song save him from Mr. Fox?
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