Merridy Eastman, Author
What a blast interviewing actor and writer, Merridy Eastman, for our Art of Writing Time to Write session. Merridy is the author of three memoirs and is currently working on her fourth. You can see how funny Merridy is just by this little introduction to her newest memoir.
“Merridy is currently writing her fourth book, I Knew We Weren’t Spanish! about the discovery that her great-great-grandfather was not a Spanish pirate, but a Worimi man from Paterson, New South Wales.”
Merridy has the ability to inject humour into all aspects of her writing. Not an easy feat. So what does make a funny line?
“It’s important not to gild the lily. Don’t go overboard and labour the point. Your reader is intelligent, they will pick up on the humour. Also, when writing comedy, pauses are just as important as when you are writing funny dialogue for a script.”
Acting must have come in handy when learning what works when writing funny books.
“Absolutely, we read a lot of scripts. Then we run through them in rehearsals, so we learn to understand the timing of comedy. Reading your work out loud is imperative. It’s only by reading out loud that we understand our rhythm and timing. Just like acting. And just like acting, there are times when you have to pause for your reader and prepare them for what’s coming. The arrangement of words, the sequence of lines. Acting has given me lots of practise in understanding what makes a line funny.”
Like so many of our fabulous TIME TO WRITE guest interview writers, Merridy underlined how essential it is to know your characters. Making sure that the kind of joke a character is cracking must be in character. That famous anacronym – OOC – is indispensable here. Out of Character.
“Each character must have its voice so clearly that there is no mistaking who made the joke. And it has to be in keeping with them. Your characters should be so definable that you can even leave out the ‘he said’s and she said’s.’ The characters are so well-drawn the reader will know exactly who said what just from the way they said it.”
It seems too that a lot of comedy writing is basically instinct.
“Exactly, your humour is individual and depends on what you are writing. Your own special voice and use of your own special humour depends on what you are trying to achieve with your writing. My work has become known for its humour. Maybe you don’t want that. But trust your own intuition when it comes to putting humour in your work. Sometimes it’s nice to have a lighter touch when your writing is getting too dark. That can even make the line funnier, because it comes in the middle of a lot of heavy stuff.”
And your main words of advice for someone starting out on their memoir?
“Write as if it’s just for you. Don’t censor yourself in the first draft. You must write about everything. Tell everything. Take it out later if you want to. But on your first go, be honest with yourself. Your writing will benefit.”
Merridy also touched on bringing family members into the process of your memoir. She advocates sending your memoir out to all who are mentioned, so they have time to digest your words, and disagree. Remember your memoir or autobiography is entirely from your perspective so others may recall that events unfolded in another way entirely. Talk about what you’ve written with those you love, keep your memoir in the open.
A huge thank you to Merridy Eastman for her advice and guidance.
After Merridy, it seemed fitting to go from writing comedy to writing about villains. So our next blog will cover the Time to Write session with crime fiction writer Rob McDonald (RWR McDonald). Now he really did have some fantastic advice on how to write your antagonist.
The Art of Writing TIME TO WRITE free sessions are for everyone. Writers and their friends and family are welcome to our free Sunday writer interviews. You can access our special Zoom interviews with writers on this link to the Art of Writing Facebook page. We listen to a writer for inspiration and questions for 40 minutes, then we mute and write together in silence for one hour. These sessions are to make you write -- literally to force you into the seat in front of your screen for TIME TO WRITE!
Write to me if you’d like to be on our email TIME TO WRITE Zoom invitation list and I’ll drop you a line each week. lisacliffordwriter@gmail.com
We still have another couple of places available for our writers retreat Essentials of Writing in Florence from June 4-8. Check out the program! We’d love to meet you in person here in Tuscany and work on your project together. The June 4-8 retreat is our last retreat for 2023.
***
If you’d like to share any comments or thoughts, I’d be happy to hear from you. Email me directly at lisacliffordwriter@gmail.com.