I am curious how others are handling their effort to subvert expectations in support writing humor and/or horror. From my perspective, they are largely similar executions that differ mostly in outcomes. And, how much do you invest in creating the drop for both. I tend to think of three sign posts given before the punchline or scare. What do you think?
I always try to subvert expectations (doesn't mean I succeed!), but I don't overthink things, I just let myself flow and naturally feel what's right. I don't write horror or humor though, I write fantasy. Sorry, that's not much help 🙁
Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten - Neil Gaiman
I tend to think of three sign posts given before the punchline or scare.
Could you perhaps expand on this a bit? Your post is a bit vague.
I think in humor you have to be funny or humorous throughout, or it wouldn't gel, and besides, what else are you doing with the rest of the time?
I wonder what this has to do with the seven point plot, and three try/fail cycles; I suspect they're very much related.
Success is going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm ~ Winston Churchill
V37: R, R, R, HM
V38: SHM
Three sign posts is the idea that you have to have suggested something was possible before you can use it. As in: You need to get across the bay. You are sitting in the parking lot of a ferry, but you're afraid of water so you'd rather take the bridge or drive around. You get on the highway to get across the bridge, but end up in a traffic jam behind a boat, so you turn around and try to drive around the south end of the bay only to find yourself hemmed in by a wildfire that's closed the highway, so you end up in a rest stop complaining to your shrink about the challenge of getting across the bay, when the guy next to you says, "Hey, I'm the captain of the afternoon ferry, it's perfectly safe."
Now that's a wild exaggeration, but over the course of the story I've reminded you that you can get across the bay on a boat three times.
