Burhana Islam is an author and secondary school teacher. Born in Bangladesh, raised in Newcastle, and now living near Manchester, Burhana is a storyteller who is passionate about exploring themes of heritage, belonging, identity and faith in her work. She is the author of Amazing Muslims Who Changed the World.
Her trilogy of illustrated novels aimed at 7- to 10-year-olds, My Laugh Out Loud Life, has been included in the Read for Empathy book collection
and was recently awarded the Tower Hamlets Book Award. The series follows the hilarious trials and triumphs of nine-year-old Yusuf as he navigates growing up, school and being the only male in his multi-generational Muslim household. To celebrate the release of the third and final book in the series, My Laugh Out Loud Life: The Big Breakout, illustrated by Farah Khandaker and published by Knights Of Burhana shares her Top Tips for writing a middle grade comedy.
When I first started writing the MY LAUGH-OUT-LOUD LIFE series, I got a lot of comments from family members who were completely dumbfounded that I had chosen to write funny fiction. Out of all my siblings and cousins and the generation that has made up our extended group chat, I come across as one of the more serious ones.
To me, life is pretty much an endless to-do list. Time is a commodity that ought not to be wasted (although I’m very guilty of that these days), and spontaneity and chaos is something I have to factor in, plan out and mentally come to terms with in advance.
A reader I adore once said that I was a ‘comedic genius’, and (to this day) that’s a source of hearty laughter and warm ridicule to my nearest and dearest - all in jest, of course. I’m the kind of person that doesn’t really have a funny or mischievous bone in her body.
In a nutshell, I am the model eldest daughter of immigrants per se (this is actually a thing) and, as such, the way I take to tackling funny fiction is simply all down to science.With that all in mind, I thought I’d list my Top Five Tips for writing funny fiction - all drawn from my experience of teaching AQA A Level Comedy - honestly, I never thought that teaching Oscar Wilde’s ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’ would shape the trajectory of my life in such a manner.
1) For me, Middle Grade comedy tends to be rooted in chaos. While I’m at the age where Cartoon Network’s ‘Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends’ doesn’t tickle me the way it used to, I have to admit that I get a lot of my inspiration from there. After being reintroduced to an episode someone close to me could pretty much recite by heart, I learned that laughter happens when actions or reactions go from bad to worse almost consecutively for something that could have been solved very simply. See the following clip to see what I mean:
In my case, Yusuf could pretty much solve a lot of his problems with simple communication (something his best friend Mustafa aptly points out in my new book). However, rather than take that route, he obviously chooses chaos (each and every time).
2) Humour can be drawn from misunderstandings. This can be a misunderstanding of a relationship, a reaction or even a sentence. The misunderstanding itself causes a certain (usually long winded) chain of events, which (like the above) could have been completely avoided if clarification was sought first time round. The humour stems from that particular realisation, as well the chaos in between. For example, in MAYHEM MISSION, one of Yusuf’s misunderstandings is that his Nanu is moving out all because of his sister, Affa. This causes him to make an incredibly rash decision in order to stop that happening, which leads to disastrous consequences.
3) Potty humour goes a long way with the younger crowd (to be honest, it goes a long way with 16 year old boys in my teaching experience). Toying with three languages in the MY LAUGH-OUT-LOUD LIFE series (English, Bengali and Arabic) really did help add another layer to that.
4) Juxtaposition: this is just a fancy way of saying vivid contrasts. I use a lot of this in the series. The aim here is to set up a scene vividly and viscerally, only to have someone undermine the seriousness of it all. In THE DASTARDLY DUO, Yusuf does a lot of this when communicating with Sairah, the mastermind behind ‘The 5B Times’ (the school’s undercover tabloid newsletter). She is fierce, cut-throat and a force to be reckoned with. Many a time, Yusuf will build up a very vivid scenario of him standing up to her with all the confidence in the world, only for him to fumble and respond in the most minute way possible (i.e. like a whisper, meaning she doesn’t even notice he’s reacted).
Humour stems from the contrast between expectation and reality.
5) Language: I LOVE LOVE LOVE this one. There’s so much to look into and explore (stay with me while my inner teacher geeks out):
- Puns: play on words i.e. your runny nose is funny - no, it’s snot
- Spoonerisms: mixing up the beginnings of letters in a phrase - new year vs yew near
- Malapropisms: using an incorrect word with a similar pronunciation in place of another i.e. illiterate from memory vs. obliterate from memory
- Popular cultural references: i.e. Off we went into the darkest and deepest depths of the realms of Mordor the High Street.
- Hyperbole: exaggeration i.e. The gates of Hell instead of school
There are actually quite a lot more, especially when you’re writing from the perspective of a person of colour. This itself opens up a world of humour stemming from culturally shared experiences. I think that’s for another time though. Happy writing!
Find Burhana on Twitter @Burhana92 and on Instagram @Burhanawrites