Andy Weir on Writing Humor into Stories
Hello everyone, welcome to a very different post type for me: an interview. You could be reading one of the first posts that changes the direction of some of my work. Or it may be a one off. Thing is, we won’t know for a while, and other authors or people of interest, might not be so kind as Mr. Weir.
I am not a trained journalist, though I play one on the internet. I asked Mr. Weir about a dozen questions, some even came with sub-questions, because I’m an academic, and he was gracious enough to answer them all. Many thanks. While I did not get a chance to interact with him in a live setting, what he did send was pretty good. I’ve given about the first half of the interview below. This post will be free to folks so share away. The next one will be behind pay access. I won’t do much to “bait” anyone. If you like it, share it, comment and the rest. I’ll go through the highlights and then get into more details in the subsequent post.
Dr. Grace in PHM uses humor and sarcasm throughout. He notoriously directs his sarcasm and witty barbs at himself as he remembers himself upon waking up from the coma. Why did you write the character to have humor be such a fundamental part of who he is? Do you use humor in the same way?
My stories are scientifically accurate and often the plot revolves around scientific principles. So the reader has to be made aware of those. That ends up being a lot of exposition. And that can be really boring to read. So I make the exposition funny. If you make something funny, the reader will forgive anything.
Do you see humor in PHM as something that helps advance the plot and/or help develop the character of Dr. Grace?
Mostly it’s a mechanism for exposition. Also I think it pulls the reader through.
I want to explore the theme of evolution and cognition. You have Rocky and Ryland discuss the evolution of the speed of thought. You make an interesting point about gravity and sound being the main reasons that humans and Rocky’s species are able to think at the same rates. Do you think that humor is something that evolution would converge on in multiple independent species as a good cognitive strategy?
I don’t know about that. Obviously humor is a core instinct among humans – it’s in every culture ever found. So for some reason we evolved that. But is it necessary? I don’t know. I guess because I don’t know why it evolved in humans in the first place.
One of the biggest things travelers to foreign countries are told is to avoid using humor because it requires shared backgrounds and assumed contexts that might not actually exist. Did this sort of advice make working humor into Ryland and Rocky’s relationship something you worried about?
It’s a good point and certainly something a traveler should be aware of. But we can assume that Rocky and Ryland are operating at a different level. If one of them said something that deeply offended the other, the offended one would simply shrug it off. It wasn’t intentional because the person who said it has literally never interacted with someone from your planet before, and there are two entire planets full of people that need to be saved. There’s no time for petty offense related disputes.
When you’re writing your jokes and trying for humor, are you ever worried that it won’t go over well or not land? Do you, like comedians, workshop your material to make sure one version of the joke is better than another?
Of course! I get feedback from friends, family, and my professional colleagues. If they think a joke falls flat I rework it.
This is about half of the interview. I don’t want to add too much to his words, as this post is really about his words and such. But I think one of the main ideas in this section of the answers is that Mr. Weir is using the humor to advance the story in a way that keeps the reader engaged. And this fits well with our understanding or experience of humor in our daily lives. We rely on humor to get us through. I guess we’re in good company with Ryland and Rocky. Looking forward to the next post that will finish off this interview. Till next time. Laugh often and much.