We are delighted to welcome Wibke Brueggemann to the blog on Blue Monday to talk about writing humour in young adult fiction.  Wibke grew up in northern Germany and the United States but lives in London.  She studied acting before deciding to become a writer.  Wibke’s debut novel Love is for Losers publishes on 21 January.

I believe humour is a force to be reckoned with as we write and read and live.  It can open the door to uncomfortable conversations, it can diffuse difficult situations, and it will illuminate and magnify the truth.

Humans seek laughter. It makes us feel good, physically as well as emotionally. It’s also a language we all understand, and it therefore connects us on a very honest and deeply emotional level.

When you read up on the effects of laughter on the body, you’ll find that it is proven to boost the immune system, that it can lower blood pressure, and even relieve pain from chronic illness.

The origins of the saying about laughter being the best medicine apparently go back to the Bible, to the book of Proverbs, chapter 17, verse 22 which reads "A merry heart doeth good like a medicine". It’s no wonder that we crave it, that we turn to it in times of peril.

An article on the website theconversation.com suggests that the origins of human laughter can be traces back to between ten and sixteen million years ago, and that its main purpose was to tighten social bonds which, in turn, enhanced chances of survival.

 And isn’t it interesting how millions of years later, laughter still feels so vital? I can only speak for myself, but I certainly feel its ancient pull as I go through my life and choose my friends and acquaintances.

When I wrote Love is for Losers, I never consciously planned for it to be a funny book. All I wanted was to write a story about a girl who volunteers at a charity shop, falls in love with another girl, and freaks out about it for the most bizarre reasons.

I also wanted to write about the importance of family and community, and it’s very interesting to me that humour snuck in so naturally and became the glue that held everything together.

The facilitator of this humour is my fifteen-year-old protagonist, Phoebe. She’s intelligent, she’s observant, and she’s hilarious, which enables me, the author, to very easily, openly, and honestly talk about the big subjects I want to talk about in the context of this book: sex, love, death.

When I thought: I really want to talk about the importance of young women being able to have positive and satisfying sexual experiences, all I needed to do was for Phoebe to browse the internet, and then tell her best friend Polly: “You need to talk to your boyfriend about the clitoris, because he’s clearly literally missing it.”

It’s amazing what a pinch of humour can achieve.

One of my favourite YA books of all time, and a masterclass in humour as a rhetorical device, is The Absolute True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie.

I’ve never read anything that’s as LOL funny and gut-wrenchingly heart-breaking at the same time. Alexie’s protagonist has to deal with unimaginable issues, and the fact that he makes us laugh so very much almost feels wrong.

It’s the same with Phoebe, although the stakes aren’t quite as high for her, but underneath her bravado and hilarity, there’s a very normal and lonely and insecure human being, but we’re not uncomfortable seeing that.

I think from an audience’s point of view, it’s a lot easier to look at difficult subjects through humour than through drama, and we’re more inclined to let humour take us to those dark places. And I don’t think this is anything that applies specifically to the YA genre, although you may argue that it is applied easier here because young people live in emotional extremes that can certainly heighten highs and lows.

I’m very grateful Love is for Losers turned out to be such a funny read, and that we’re sending it into the world during what is a very difficult time for all of us.

I hope that Phoebe will bring you much needed hope, courage, and laughter.

Love Is For Losers by Wibke Brueggemann, is out on 21^st January 2021, published by Macmillan Children’s Books.  Thank you to Wibke Brueggemann for the blog article and to Macmillan Children’s Books for the opportunity.