Funny Is Fun for Master of Fiction, Chris Moore.
Melinda Palacio -- July 7, 2006
Christopher Moore can't help but be funny. The young author, 48, takes his calling seriously and has been writing professionally for 16 years. His irreverent and whimsical novels are impossible to put down. Last week, at the Santa Barbara Writers Conference, Moore taught a Master of Fiction class. Over the course of three days, he shared his secrets and tools for producing hilarious and compelling characters and page-turning plots.
The lesson began with a chuckle. Moore's boyish looks and charm squeezed a nervous laughter out of the room filled with "advanced fiction writers" when he admitted that this was his first time teaching and that he really didn't know what he was doing. The crowd found his confession endearing. Most couldn't boast a short story published, let alone, nine plus books and a Quill Book Award.
The Ohio native stressed the importance of voice and rolling with your strengths. When he first came to the SBWC as a student in 1983, he was convinced he was a horror story writer. To his surprise, upon reading and workshopping his early material, he heard peels of laughter instead of squeals of discomfort and terror. It was time to roll with the humor and hang out with a new crowd. However, staying true to his hero, Ray Bradbury, Moore worked supernatural elements into his humor. "I need weird stuff to happen to stay interested," said Moore.
Christopher Moore in action
"I write books because it's fun. If it ceases to be fun, I'll find other ways to make a living. There's joy in making people laugh."
Visualize the novel before writing. There are basic tools, pen, paper, and computer software programs, such as Action Outline (for Windows) or OmniOutliner (for Apple), to help produce wacky subplots and funny dialogue guaranteed to make the reader laugh. These tools are invisible to readers who don't see the many notebooks, outlines, timelines and pages of unused ideas and dialogue that do not make it into a bestselling novel. Funny dialogue or new words might creep into Moore's consciousness when he least expects it. "Never resist writing it down," said Moore who's never without two or three notebooks, the bigger, better. He's found an 18 x 24 sketchpad is best for his timelines. Rather than tote an enormous sketchpad, Moore photographs his notebooks and views the copies on his laptop.
Funny Fellowship. SBWC instructors John H.
Ritter, Ernie Witham, Christopher Moore.
He offered a second confession: "I go to the page freaked out." He may approach the page in a freaked out mode, but he is not alone. "Trust your Muse," he adds, "throw ideas to the page, more will come." Moore overcomes any feelings of doubt by planning, sketching, and staying ahead of his game by about five scenes. He draws a line, divides it into three acts. The first point on the line is the beginning of the story, the last point is the end. The novel needs to take off with something happening.
"Meet your day with a task. You have to break the task down. You can't face a ream of blank paper. You need to know where you are going."
Every master of fiction should be aware of two books: John Gardner's The Art of Fiction and Joseph Campbell's The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Moore's Coyote Blue follows the hero's journey exactly as Campbell lays it out. Only Campbell would never think of giving the reader access to the interior life of a lizard who may be the reincarnation of Jimi Hendrix.
Moore's characters are archetypes and composites of people he knows, what he calls Frankenstein monsters. People often tell him they know who his fictional characters are based on.
Like his hero, Samson Hunts Alone, Moore falls back on his tools of the trade. With his map of future scenes and knowledge of what needs to happen, Moore can take pride and pleasure in composing his 1000 words for the day. When necessary, he relies on a little magic in the form of a "squeaky frog" and a "golden Buddha."
His visual charts and notebooks keep him on track. Moore says he doesn't indulge in writer's block. The most important thing is to get the story done. However, the internet has thrown him off course. He had three books in place before the onset of the world wide web. For his bestseller, Fluke: Or, I Know Why the Winged Whale Sings, he needed to research some Greek names. Two hours later, he'd gone through several indexes of Greek baby names and discovered the wonders of extracting olive oil.
Distractions aside, the internet is a useful tool as is TiVo; the device recorded every show about whales. Moore delights in doing research for his novels. He didn't voice any complaints about the Dewy Decimal System. "Learn from the work," said Moore. "When I finish a book I realize how much I know that I didn't know before."
The humble humorist and master of fiction shares more on his website www.chrismoore.com.