A to Z Blog Challenge:Announcing My Exciting Theme (are you on the edge of your seat in anticipation?)

I jumped on the A to Z blogging challenge bandwagon a few days ago. And then I scrambled around trying to figure out my theme.

No, you don't have to have a theme, but I think it will be good for me to have something specific to focus on.  I tried this challenge last year and got about...mmmm...maybe half way through it before life got in the way. Although I had a theme then, too...

Well, hopefully I'll make it the whole month this year.

So, now....back to this theme. Ideas bounced around in my head....maybe a fantasy theme? Middle grade fantasy books? Or maybe just general writing tips?

And then I got thinking about the middle grade fantasy book I'm trying to write. It's funny. And not in the it-smells-weird-what-could-be-wrong-with-it sort of way. Well....no, it's funny like that, too.

I didn't set out to write humorous novels. In fact the first novel I worked on was a very serious YA fantasy.

But....that one didn't really stick.

I dabbled in novel writing with a few other projects. Short stories. A really young middle grade involving fairies. That one has been locked away in a secret vault called, "Worst stories ever".

Then I started writing this WIP and writing friends who read pages were so encouraging. They laughed in the right spots and told me I was funny. At Chautauqua, my mentor said, "You're funny." She wrote, "Has a good sense of timing." on my application where I'd...well, tried to be funny. (Yeah, didn't expect to have my application critiqued!)

Over a series of experiences like this I finally realized...

"Hey! I think I'm kind of funny."

BUT I have to say the funniness doesn't always show up. Sometimes I think of hilarious things to add to my manuscript. And other times....uh...there's nothing. It's like my humor muse is a crotchedy old man who hides in a dark corners fiddling with his suspendars and every now and then I stumble upon him before he leaps up to hide somewhere new.

I need to learn how to be funny. Better. To be funny on purpose. More. SO, it will be no surprise that my blog will devoted completely to funny business for the next month. Yep, my theme for the A to Z Challenge will be about writing humor.

Who else is in for the challenge? Did you pick a theme? Are you scratching your head right now trying to figure out in what universe I'm actually funny? Or maybe you're nodding your head and thinking, "Yeah, that works. I laugh AT Erin all the time."