I know I want my story to be comedic. A comedic story starts with a comic premise and is supported by a comedic character.
What is a comic premise? According to John Vorhaus in his book The Comic Toolbox, a comic premise is the gap between comic reality and real reality. It’s often demonstrated between one character having a comic reality and another being grounded in the real world. In the case of my story, it’s our baby turtle convinced he’s going to eat a shark. Since we play a role in the story, our understanding of the absurdity of the turtle’s view makes us the “real reality” character.
Steve Kaplan is a comedy teacher, hollywood script doctor, and author of The Hidden Tools of Comedy: The Serious Business of Being Funny. He has reduced comedy to a single line: “An ill-equipped and relatable character facing impossible odds who never gives up.” Is our comedic character ill-equipped? Check. Is he facing impossible odds? Check. Does he never give up? Well, technically yes. But it would be better if we had time to knock him down a few times so we could see him never give up. I’m not sure that could be done without lengthening the story quite a bit. I’ll keep this in mind as I go, but for now I need to stick with the goal of simplicity and that means keeping the story as short as possible.
Scott Dickers states in his book How To Write Funny that surprise is the one ingredient that all humor requires. We do this by setting up one thing and then delivering another. Having the turtle actually eat the shark should be a bit surprising. I worry it is too convenient. But for now I’m going with it. Scott Dickers also believes the highest form of comedy is satire, and satire’s secret ingredient is subtext. Subtext is the author having something to say that is hidden in the literal text. This sounds remarkably like the definition of theme, only many story structure theories say theme should be explicitly stated by some character, often near the beginning.
A thorough Google search shows there are two camps on the topic of Theme vs Subtext. I believe there is no clear difference between subtext and theme, other than subtext is a theme that is never explicitly stated. A theme is described as an opinion of the author about life; a life lesson of sorts. So is subtext, but often subtext is executed in an ironic or sarcastic way. Many opinions say theme should never hit the audience over the head explicitly but like I mentioned above some story structure theories say the opposite. I only bring up theme vs subtext because it confused me, and it seems to confuse others. But I think the safe answer is Theme and Subtext are effectively the same if you don’t explicitly state them.
So, what kind of subtext can I Infuse into my story to make it meaningful? What is some fatal flaw or weakness in humanity or the universe? What do I have to say as an author? I have a lot of opinions just like everyone, but what are some of the obvious themes in my story that I could derive a subtext from? The strong versus the meek. I could be commenting on the sharks of this world versus the little guy. I could also focus on the fact that the shark ate the music maker (piano man). In what way is music attacked today? Record Labels trying to control musicians and the music industry is one way. But what is something more universal to everyone? More of a life lesson?
It’s not really in there now, but I could comment on the cyclical nature of life. Or I could comment on revenge since that’s what the baby turtle is after. I could combine the two! What if after the baby turtle eats the shark and swims away, a baby shark swims by and asks “Have you seen my daddy?” That’s a bit ironic. And dark. What would the subtext/theme be with this? Even if we root for the little guy, someone always gets hurt? Or taking it back to revenge….revenge always has unintended consequences. Or “Revenge always has collateral damage.” This works. It’s dark, but satire often is. The baby shark at the end implies revenge always hurts someone. It also demonstrates how our views came seem so right when looked at from one perspective but not when viewed from another. To help solidify this subtext, should the turtle for a moment consider that maybe he shouldn't kill the Boogie Woogie? If so it should be done in a way that doesn't explicitly say the subtext because that kills satire.
Next time we'll discuss the secret weapon of staying on track when we write our story:
the Logline.
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