A step-by-step guide to humor writing that will convert anybody into a funnier writer and person.

INSIDE JOKES is a masterclass in a book that teaches you how to write funnier, from short humor and satire to essays and memoir to psychiatric intake forms.

It covers everything from the basics (like finding topics to write and joke about), to writing jokes, to joking about what you “shouldn’t” joke about, to the art of rejection, to how to sit still in a chair.

Each chapter has technical and practical instruction to turn comedy outsiders into insiders and non-funny readers into funny writers.

Basically, INSIDE JOKES is The Artist’s Way for the funny soul.

Included at no extra cost: brainstorming and writing exercises, prompts, and pep talks that will take your writing from nonexistent to shitty first draft to award-deserving.

The book is also cut with interviews with almost 100 professional comedians, published authors, editors, scriptwriters, speechwriters, performers, and winners of writing awards.

Part writing guide, creativity bible, and therapy session, INSIDE JOKES tells secrets most writers learn through trial, error, and professional humiliation. It’s for:

• People who are funny already

• People who worry they can never be funny

• Students and aspiring writers

• Writers who work across genres—fiction, nonfiction, long, short, serious, absurd—or would like to

• Anybody who wants the confidence to make fun of themselves and society

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Authors/editors/teachers/perfect 10s Elissa Bassist and Caitlin Kunkel have taught thousands of classes to thousands of students at thousands of institutions,
and here they share their experience, lectures, tricks, replicable processes, and no-fail techniques that make comedy writing accessible for anyone with something
to say.

It’s a perfect fit for colleges and universities, graduate programs, writing communities, gifts, and personal use.

Please get in touch about craft talks, book clubs, writing clubs, etc. for lectures, gossip, and curricula based on INSIDE JOKES.