What makes a story funny?
Or more importantly, how do we MAKE a story funny?
Facilitated by Patrick Lenton
Key Information
Early-bird offer: Get 15% off with coupon code EARLY15 when you book by 18 July 2025.
When: Tuesday 26 August
6:30 pm – 8:30 pm
Venue: Online via Zoom (link will be sent the day prior to the event)
Cost:
Full Price: $75
Member: $65
Member concession / youth: $55
Non-member concession / youth: $65
* Hunter Writers Centre defines youth as someone aged 25 years or under.
About the Course
This workshop gives you the basic tools to create funny scenes, comedically minded characters, and cracking dialogue for any story—fiction, or non-fiction.
Be introduced to the foundational techniques for comedic storytelling, spanning dialogue, description, character creation, and plotting. Participants leave the workshop with some easy exercises to use when writing comedic narratives.
Drawing from pop-culture, fiction, memoir, theatre, screen, and sketch comedy, you’ll leave with a toolkit of techniques that provide the building blocks of comedy for the page.
Course Structure
Through a mix of theory, group games, and practical writing activities, you’ll explore how to:
- Craft comedic characters using the ‘one true thing’ rule
- Write real-life people comedically, without losing truth
- Use status to generate tension and humour in scenes
- Build dialogue that’s sharp, surprising and paced for laughs
- Apply a repeatable structure for writing comic scenes
Accessibility
This workshop will be held online through Zoom. If you have any specific accessibility requirements, please let us know when you fill out the registration form or contact Bastian on programs@hunterwriterscentre.org, or call 0435 858 145.
About Patrick Lenton
Patrick Lenton is a writer and author currently living in Melbourne. He is the author of three collections of short stories, including Sexy Tales of Paleontology, which was shortlisted for the Russell Prize for Humour Writing. His upcoming debut fiction novel, a queer rom-com called In Spite of You is coming out in August with Pantera Press. He has regular bylines in The Guardian, the SMH/The Age, the ABC and more.