Not only that, but it can get stale. Sometimes we fall into a formula when we write books, or we can’t get ourselves past the first few chapters of an idea, or we’re stuck in the dreaded middle section of our novel for what feels like forever. It can feel a little like getting stranded, and it’s no wonder some writers jump ship on their projects. 

But it doesn’t need to be so lonely, nor does it need to be boring! Participating in a writing challenge might be your ticket out of that sticky spot. 

What are Writing Challenges?

Writing challenges are exactly what they sound like. They’re challenges created for writers with the intent of getting writers to, well, write! These aren’t writing contests—there often isn’t a cash prize or publication prize for people who participate in writing challenges. 

If there isn’t a prize, why should you bother?  

Why Should I Try a Writing Challenge? 

Writing challenges do a few excellent things for their participants. First and foremost, they connect a participant to a community of writers participating in the same challenge. This sense of community helps writers amp each other up—it’s a team dynamic we don’t often get to experience as writers, and it can make the world of difference powering through a first draft or a difficult round of revisions. 

Writing challenges also encourage writers to practice, often every day. Of course, you don’t need to write every single day to be a “real” writer, but just like athletes do marathons, writers can get a lot out of a good challenge. You can flex your writing muscles, maybe try something new, and have some fellow participants to commiserate with. What more could you need? 

For me, personally, writing challenges often feel a little bit like writing camp. You get to stay in the comfort of your own home, but you’re meeting people online, you’re working on a new project, and the whole enterprise has that fun, novel feeling you get at summer camp. The momentum might not last forever, but you don’t need it to! The goal is to have fun and make something. 

If you’re looking to try something new, power through a difficult draft, or just crank out words, writing challenges might be worth checking out. And lucky for you, we’ve compiled a list of some writing challenges you can participate in! 

Here are Sixteen Writing Challenges to Enter:

1. NaNoWriMo

“National Novel Writing Month began in 1999 as a daunting but straightforward challenge: to write 50,000 words of a novel in thirty days. Now, each year on November 1, hundreds of thousands of people around the world begin to write, determined to end the month with 50,000 words of a brand new novel. They enter the month as elementary school teachers, mechanics, or stay-at-home parents. They leave novelists.”

NaNoWriMo is perhaps the best-known writing challenge, and it’s a doozy. Contrary to popular belief, the challenge isn’t really to write an entire novel in a month—it’s to write 50,000 words of a novel, which is not a whole lot less difficult. It’s got a built-in social media system to connect with other writers working in similar genres, a word count tracker that measures your progress, and rewards you with badges as you complete milestones throughout the month. Here are some other ways to set yourself up for success, too.

If NaNoWriMo happens at a bad time of year for you (for example, I could barely do this challenge in college, since it was exactly when my classes started heating up), check the website for Camp NaNo and other challenges that happen throughout the year. 

2. Write NonFiction in November Challenge (WNFIN) 

“During the Write Nonfiction in November (WNFIN) Challenge, also known as National Nonfiction Writing Month (NaNonFiWriMo), you are personally challenged to start and complete a work of nonfiction in 30 days. This can be an article, an essay, a book, a book proposal, a white paper, or a manifesto.”

This challenge is intended as an alternative to NaNoWriMo for Nonfiction writers. Instead of using a word count and word goal to keep track, this challenge encourages the honor system, and the intent is to complete any work of nonfiction. 

3. EBookWriMo

“Your mission (should you choose to accept it): Write an ebook for your audience in 30 days, from November 1 to November 30.” 

This challenge encourages its participants to complete a polished ebook in thirty days. The premise is simple: novels are huge, and ebooks are generally smaller. This challenge takes you through actionable steps to write and polish an ebook, with the goal being to have a completely finished ebook for your audience by the end. 

4. StoryADay

“StoryADay is a creativity challenge:

Write (and finish) a short story every day during May and/or September.

(or on your own schedule!)

StoryADay exists to promote creativity, not to teach you how to ‘be a published writer’.

(And sometimes we do it all over again in September.)”

If novels aren’t your bag, or the thought of working on a single project for a month feels too daunting, StoryADay might be for you! StoryADay challenges you to write a story every day during May or September—you don’t have to post or publish it, and they give you prompts each day to keep your gears turning. There are a handful of ways that writing stories can make you a better writer, so don’t sleep on this one.

5. 12 x 12 Challenge 

“12 x 12 is a year-long writing challenge where members aim to write 12 complete picture book drafts, one per month, for each 12 months of the year.

A draft means a story with a beginning, middle, and end—NOT a submission-ready piece. Founded by picture book author Julie Hedlund, 12 x 12 has been supporting, encouraging, and educating writers since 2012.”

12×12 is a great resource for picture book authors. One of the biggest perks of this challenge is its community—participating in this will connect you to lots of other authors, as well as resources for writing, revising, and submitting your work. 

6. Chapter Book Challenge 

“The Chapter Book Challenge, otherwise known as ‘ChaBooCha,’ was created by Rebecca Fyfe and first ran in 2012. It runs every year in the month of March. The challenge is to write one completed first draft of an early reader, chapter book, middle grade book or YA novel in the month of March, starting on the 1^st of March and finishing on the 31^st of March.”

During the month, you’ll find a helpful community to engage with, original articles from published authors and successful agents, and giveaways throughout.

7. Yeah Write Super Challenge 

“The Super Challenge is typically run in two rounds. During each round, we’ll release the prompt on Friday at 10pm US Eastern time. That’s right—you don’t have to stay up all night to get your prompt! Writers then have 48 hours to write a story or essay responsive to that prompt.

Once the writing phase is complete, our judges go to work. Each piece is scored and given positive and critical feedback by each judge. Writers will receive their feedback 12-24 hours before we announce who will advance to the next round. For more information about this phase of the challenge, check out our FAQ.

Roughly ten writers from the first round of competition advance to the second round to compete for first, second and third place prizes.”

If you’re looking for a writing challenge with a little incentive, look no further! This challenge uses prompts to get writers in a variety of different genres competing for cash. This takes place once a quarter and lasts for six weeks, so check in every now and again to see if they’re running a challenge that looks like it’s for you! 

8. 365 Writing Challenge 

“What is 365 Writing Challenge?  It’s an organized group of writers who encourages and supports each other as they try to write consistently for a calendar year.”

This challenge is a subgroup of the 10 Minute Novelists group—just link up with their Facebook page to join! For this one, you and your fellow novelists can cheer each other on as you work a little every day on your novel. Momentum can really build after a while, and this challenge can have you cranking out hundreds of thousands of words by the end of the year. 

9. Writer’s Games 2024

“The Writer’s Games is a two-month, challenge-based competition that can seem daunting until you dive in. It’s not your ordinary writing competition for several reasons. First, all participants must register in advance to participate. Second, competition writing begins only after Events are announced. Third, Events are kept secret until the start of the Event. Fourth, every entry submitted on time receives honest, unbiased feedback from a team of future editors, professors, and literary agents, regardless of placement!”

If you want a challenge with a little pizzazz, here’s your pick! This is another prize-winning option. Find the prompt on their site, take a look at the core concepts, and respond with a short story within their parameters (750-6,000 words) for a chance to win! 

10. Scribophile

Scribophile is a vibrant online writing community that offers a plethora of writing challenges and opportunities for writers of all levels to hone their craft. With a user-friendly platform designed for constructive feedback and collaboration, Scribophile hosts various writing challenges throughout the year, catering to diverse genres and writing styles.

Writers can participate in themed contests, flash fiction challenges, or even set personal writing goals within the supportive environment of Scribophile’s community. These challenges not only encourage writers to explore new ideas and techniques but also foster connections with fellow writers, providing invaluable support and encouragement on the journey toward literary excellence.

Whether you’re looking to flex your creative muscles, receive feedback on your work, or simply connect with like-minded writers, Scribophile offers a dynamic space where writers can grow and thrive.

11. The Writer’s Workout

The Writers’ Workout is an engaging online platform that provides a range of writing challenges and competitions tailored to writers seeking to enhance their skills and creativity.

With monthly challenges designed to prompt writers to explore different genres, styles, and themes, The Writers’ Workout offers a supportive environment where participants can push their boundaries and experiment with new techniques. From flash fiction contests to poetry challenges and everything in between, writers can find a variety of prompts and exercises to spark their imagination and inspire their next literary masterpiece.

With opportunities to receive feedback from peers and professional writers, The Writers’ Workout encourages writers to develop their craft, build confidence, and ultimately become more proficient storytellers.

12. The Poetry Marathon

The Poetry Marathon is an exhilarating annual event that invites poets from around the world to embark on a challenging yet rewarding journey of creativity and expression.

Held over the course of 24 hours, participants endeavor to write 24 poems, each within a designated hour, pushing the boundaries of their imagination and poetic prowess.

With prompts provided throughout the marathon and a supportive online community rallying behind them, poets have the opportunity to explore diverse themes, experiment with various forms and styles, and delve deep into the art of poetry.

The Poetry Marathon not only fosters a sense of camaraderie among poets but also encourages personal growth, resilience, and the celebration of the written word.

13. Writer’s Digest

Writer’s Digest is a renowned resource for writers of all levels, offering a wealth of information, advice, and inspiration to help them navigate the world of writing and publishing. In addition to its comprehensive collection of articles, workshops, and writing guides, Writer’s Digest also hosts various writing challenges and competitions throughout the year.

These challenges cover a wide range of genres and formats, including short stories, poetry, memoirs, and more, providing writers with opportunities to showcase their talent, receive feedback from industry professionals, and even win prizes. Whether it’s the annual Writer’s Digest Annual Writing Competition, themed contests, or prompt-driven challenges, Writer’s Digest offers a supportive platform for writers to hone their skills, gain recognition for their work, and connect with a vibrant community of fellow writers.

With its longstanding reputation as a trusted resource for writers, Writer’s Digest continues to inspire and empower writers to pursue their literary aspirations and achieve their writing goals.

14. Reedsy

Reedsy is a dynamic online platform dedicated to supporting writers on their creative journey, offering a range of resources, tools, and opportunities to help them thrive in the world of writing.

Among its offerings, Reedsy hosts a weekly series of writing prompts and challenges designed to spark creativity and encourage writers to explore new ideas and styles. These prompts cover various genres and themes, providing writers with a steady stream of inspiration and opportunities to flex their creative muscles.

With a supportive community of writers and editors, Reedsy’s writing challenges offer a space for writers to experiment, improve their craft, and connect with fellow creatives.

15. Jerico Writers

Jericho Writers is a comprehensive online platform dedicated to empowering writers with the tools, resources, and support they need to succeed in their writing journey.

Amongst this, Jericho Writers hosts monthly writing challenges designed to inspire writers, encourage creativity, and provide opportunities for growth.

These challenges cover a wide range of genres, styles, and themes, allowing writers to explore new ideas, experiment with different techniques, and hone their craft in a supportive and collaborative environment.

Jericho Writers’ writing challenges offer writers the chance to connect with peers, receive constructive criticism, and push themselves to new heights of creativity and excellence.

16. NYC Midnight

NYC Midnight offers a great platform for writers to engage in creative challenges and showcase their storytelling prowess.

Through their writing challenges, participants are assigned prompts within specific genres and have a limited time frame to craft compelling stories or screenplays.

These challenges provide a wonderful opportunity for writers to test their skills under pressure, explore diverse genres, and receive feedback from peers and judges.

Characters are sort of like pawns. To know what to do with them, you need to know what they’re doing in your story—what purpose do they serve, and what are readers going to expect from them based on similar characters from other stories?

In this article, we’re going to talk about the different types of characters in a story that you’ll encounter across mediums (T.V., movies, books, etc.). Not only will this make it easier for you to analyze the media you encounter, but it’ll help you more intentionally and thoughtfully craft your own work.

Character Roles

Let’s first talk about characters by the role they play in your story. This is the function they serve in terms of the story, and these terms are used across genres and mediums (a protagonist is called a protagonist whether you’re talking about a children’s adventure book or a grisly war movie).

These roles often overlap—antagonists may start out as deuteragonists, for example, and in a series like Heroes of Olympus by Rick Riordan, characters who are protagonists in one installment may not get as much on-page time as they do in another. 

Protagonist

The protagonist is the main character of your story. They’re the ones driving the plot and undergoing the most change, usually. The story is about them, and the story’s main arc will be tied directly into their own internal character arc. A story told from multiple points of view may have multiple protagonists—if this is the case, each character should have similar weight.

Examples: Luke Skywalker in Star Wars, Miles in Looking for Alaska by John Green

Antagonist

The antagonist directly opposes the protagonist. We see this in superhero movies all the time: the antagonist wants to destroy the world while the protagonist wants to save it. They often need to be defeated by the protagonist in order for the plot to resolve. The antagonist’s chief job is to create problems for our main characters.

Examples: Sauron in Lord of the Rings, Logan Roy in Succession, Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey

Deuteragonist

A deuteragonist is the character who is secondarily important to the protagonist. This is often the protagonist’s closest friend and companion. Because of their proximity to and influence over the protagonist, they play an enormous role in the plot, and they often undergo significant change themselves—conflict between the deuteragonist and the protagonist is a common subplot meant to steer the protagonist toward the inner change needed to succeed in the climax.

Examples: Dr. Watson in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Sam Gamgee in Lord of the Rings

Tertiary Characters

Tertiary characters are the third most important characters in a story. These characters don’t often see a lot of character development, or at least not particularly complicated development—they mostly exist to flesh out the world and add texture and depth to the setting, as well as to deliver one or two pieces of information to the main cast. They might be townspeople, henchmen, or miscellaneous council members.

Example: Pintel and Ragetti from Pirates of the Caribbean: the Curse of the Black Pearl

To know how to name characters, click here.

Character Archetypes of the Hero’s Journey

An ‘archetype’ is sort of like the blueprint. An ‘archetypal mother,’ for example, would be the picture of a mother—not necessarily the perfect mother, but the perfect example of a mother. In The Hero’s Journey, Joseph Campbell outlines eight major character archetypes which pop up in fiction.

The Hero

The hero is usually the protagonist. This is the character who has to battle their internal struggles to overcome the antagonist and save the day in the end—the reader generally roots for them and wants them to win. They tend to be aligned with moral good.

Examples: Marvel’s Captain America, Percy Jackson from The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan

The Mentor

This character exists to offer advice and guidance to the hero. They don’t usually have much of an arc unto themselves, instead serving as a plot device—they show up when the hero needs a key piece of wisdom to help them on their internal journey. This character tends to be older, but that’s not necessarily a rule.

Examples: Yoda from Star Wars, Gandalf from The Lord of the Rings

The Ally

The ally is the hero’s right hand man. This is usually the deuteragonist—this person wants to help the main character achieve their goals, and their interests are tightly aligned with the hero’s. If they become misaligned, this is the source of enormous conflict, as the ally and hero tend to depend on one another.

Example: Nick Carroway from The Great Gatsby

The Herald

The herald isn’t always a character—this can be a person, but it could also be an object, like a message. The herald’s purpose is to herald, or signal, an upcoming change for the hero. This typically happens at the start of the story—a character’s living their regular life until the herald calls them to adventure.

Examples: the letter from Hogwarts in Harry Potter, the summons from Fiona’s parents in Shrek 2

The Trickster

The Trickster is there for comic relief. Sometimes this is also the protagonist’s best friend (you see this a lot in buddy-cop movies), since having a sidekick who tags along to make wisecracks is an easy way to keep the mood light. They may also provide emotional support or serve some other function, but this character is the one you think of as ‘the funny one.’

Examples: Donkey from Shrek, Jaskier from The Witcher 

The Shapeshifter

While most of the main characters undergo change in some form or fashion, the shapeshifter’s change is different—they cross the line between ally and enemy. Someone who starts out as an ally and is later found out to always have been an enemy is an example—so is a redeemed villain who always had a heart of gold.

Examples: Zuko from Avatar: The Last Airbender, Rhea Jarrell in Succession

The Guardian

The guardian, also known as the threshold, is a character who stands between the hero and his destination. They warn the character about the danger ahead, either explicitly in the form of a verbal warning, or implicitly by their dangerous nature. The hero has to defeat, outsmart, or otherwise work around the guardian to proceed with the quest.

Examples: Cerberus from The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan, The Minotaur from The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan

The Shadow

The shadow character is the antagonist, or the antagonistic force. This is the threat which looms over the story and which ultimately must be defeated by the hero. They also represent an opposite world view from that of our protagonist—usually this looks like a morally good protagonist who represents evil.

Examples: Darth Vader from Star Wars, Gollum from The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien

Character Tropes by Genre

Character archetypes, as you can see by the examples listed above, span over many genres and mediums. Within specific genres, though, these archetypes take the shape of character tropes.

Tropes are commonly used elements within a story—they’re building blocks to which a reader will instantly assign meaning based on their previous interactions with that trope.

To know how to create believable worlds for your character, click here.

Character Tropes in Sci/Fi Fantasy

The Wizard

The Wizard usually acts as a mentor figure. They tend to be older (sometimes centuries old or immortal), and they often have some supernatural abilities which give them transcendental knowledge which they can impart to the protagonist. They also tend to be loners and live in seclusion.

Example: Gandalf from The Lord of the Rings

The Chosen One

The Chosen One is a trope where the main character is literally destined for the plot. They’re the only person who can, for some plot-provided reason, save the day. The Chosen One will often grapple with this enormous responsibility, and their decision to take on that responsibility or abandon it will make up their inner arc.

Example: Harry Potter

The Reluctant Hero

The Reluctant Hero is one who doesn’t want to save the day. They want to go about their regular lives, but eventually, the plot demands that they take on the role of the hero.

Example: Shrek

The Dark Lord

The Dark Lord is a very powerful wizard, sorcerer, or magician-type character who also usually serves as the story’s antagonist. They tend to represent evil, and they tend to have an all-powerful aura about them—Dark Lords often have armies, henchmen, and so on which must also be reckoned with during the quest.

Example: Voldemort

Character Tropes in Romance

Secret Billionaire

The Secret Billionaire knows that they’re a billionaire, but their love interest and the story’s secondary characters don’t. This means that the love interest falls in love with them purely for their personality and not for their money, which is what the Secret Billionaire is used to, and which is why the Secret Billionaire will resist the exposure of their wealth so hard.

Girl-Next-Door

The girl-next-door is a little naive, friendly, and helpful. They’re not supermodel beautiful or insanely talented in any particular regard—their strengths come from their down-to-earth goodness, patience, and sensibility. These are common protagonists in romance novels, since they function as great self-inserts for readers.

Newbie

The newbie trope, also known as the virgin trope, is where we have a character (most often a young woman) who is completely new to the world of romance, sex, and dating in general. When handled poorly, we get characters like Anna from Fifty Shades, whose naivety feels almost supernatural in nature and who is frequently infantilized for the purpose of fetishization.

Character Tropes in Horror/Thriller

The Scholar

The scholar character is the one who does a ton of research—they might be a professor, lab assistant, or doctor—and provides the protagonist with this information at some key point in the story. In a supernatural horror, this information might be lore about the entity haunting the cast. In a realistic thriller, it might be a detective or police force sharing what they know with the protagonist.

The Amateur Sleuth

The amateur sleuth, commonly the protagonist, has no background in solving crime. They’re often an everyday person who becomes forced to investigate the mystery themselves when proper authorities aren’t an option, either because they refuse to take on the case or prove incompetent.

The Lonely Monster

The lonely monster is usually the antagonist. This character, as the name implies, lives alone, and if that loneliness is highlighted by the story, it might give them a sympathetic edge. This might be a ghost kicking around an old asylum, a monster hiding out in an abandoned warehouse—they still often need to be defeated by the heroes, but they might not feel great about it.

Halloween has come and gone, but readers of all ages love to cozy up with a good horror book throughout the fall and winter. So why not try your hand at writing a creepy book

People have been fascinated by creepy subject matter since… well, forever. Ghost stories have been around since people have, and it’s not hard to see why. Horror is a way for us to explore one of our most primal emotions—fear—and it’s a way for us to talk about subjects that are often taboo in regular conversation, like death.

If you’re in the mood to write something scary this season, you’ve come to the right place. In this article, we’ll talk about what makes a book creepy, then we’ll walk you through the process of how to write creepy books.

What makes a book creepy? (Things to consider)

First and foremost, let’s clear something up: you don’t have to write a horror story to write a creepy story.

Horror is a genre that intends to disgust or frighten the reader. The entire goal is to make the reader feel unpleasant. If you’re writing a horror novel, you want that at the forefront of your mind.

However, not every book with scary elements is horror. Paranormal romance, for example, often includes frightening creatures or spooky settings, but the objective isn’t to scare the reader—it’s to tell a love story. The reader is meant to feel all the feelings they might get from a romance, just with a side of creepiness. For more on romance tropes, read this article.

This is all to say that you can use these tips even if you’re not writing a straightforward horror novel. Got a fantasy adventure with a scene in which your characters have to crawl through a haunted dungeon? You’ll want to know how to write that haunted dungeon to its full creepy potential. Got an action thriller with a torture sequence? If you want it to land, you’ll need to know how to use suspense and how to write violent scenes.

So, what makes a book creepy?

Dark atmosphere and tone

The atmosphere in your book is the mood you’re creating for the reader. You could say it’s the book’s ‘vibe.’ Atmosphere varies from chapter to chapter or scene to scene (this comes with emotional variance—some scenes will be happy, some will be sad, etc), but there’s still an overarching sense of atmosphere throughout a given novel.

In order to manipulate your novel’s atmosphere, you have to manipulate your tone. Grammarly defines tone as “the attitude your words employ.” To explain this, let’s take a look at two examples.

Example A: “Mike’s totally crazy. He totaled Dad’s car doing donuts in the Hobby Lobby parking lot last weekend, and honestly, it’ll be a surprise if Dad lets him off the hook this time.”

This feels like someone telling you a story. The words here aren’t very formal, the sentences aren’t super complicated, and overall it reads casually. This is a conversational tone.

Example B: “Mike’s madness settled. In the dim light of the Hobby Lobby parking lot, his tires squealed, circling like the crows dumpster-diving behind the adjacent Olive Garden. He should go home. He knows he should go home. But his father will be there, and this time, Mike’s not getting off the hook.”

Okay, so the Hobby Lobby thing aside, this is a different vibe. Words like ‘madness’ and phrases like ‘dim light’ give this telling a more serious, creepy flavor. This is a sinister tone.

To create a creepy atmosphere by using tone in your story, focus on sensory details and use figurative language to create associations with spooky stuff. Vary your sentence structure to add tension or drama. ‘Leaves crunched under their feet’ is okay, but ‘leaves crunched under their feet like broken teeth’ makes me think of chewing leaves or chewing broken teeth, and both are gross! Which is what we want.

There are all kinds of literary devices that will help you develop your creative writing.

Uncomfortable setting

Another way to make your book creepy is to put your characters in an uncomfortable setting. You can do this the obvious way by putting your characters in a cold, damp, dark, generally claustrophobic environment, but they don’t have to be in a creepy cave or scary dungeon to have a terrible time.

The setting should pose a problem for the characters. Maybe this is a beautiful home, but the people in it are kind of evil and scary. Maybe it’s a decent hotel room, but there’s no smoking allowed, and our protagonist is starting to yearn for a cigarette.

Use the setting and the characters’ circumstances to layer discomfort until they’re swaddled in a thick, itchy blanket of misery.

Paranormal activity

Paranormal activity includes monsters, ghosts, the undead, spirits, demons, fairies, that kind of thing. The paranormal doesn’t have to be scary, but it definitely can be. If you’re including paranormal activity in your book, decide on the creature’s limitations and abilities and stick to them while you’re writing. This will keep your reader from getting confused and pulled out of the story by seemingly random, unexplained events or new powers coming out of nowhere.

Nail-biting suspense

Suspense is necessary for any storytelling—you’ll find a little suspense in most children’s books as well as books for adults. Suspense is what makes readers anticipate what’s coming up next, and if they don’t care, then they’re probably going to put the book down.

Adding a ton of suspense, though, takes the reader past anticipation and into discomfort. It puts them on the edge of their seat and, ideally, they’re afraid of what’s going to happen next, but too invested to quit.

How do you create this experience in the reader? It might seem difficult, but it’s a trick as old as time: setup and payoff.

You want to establish the threat early on—in a horror story, this might be the opening scene where some unnamed character is murdered so we can see and fear the monster. Once you’ve set up the threat, you’ve done most of the work. The audience will be waiting for that threat to show up, and when it does, they’ll be both horrified and satisfied to see the setup paid off.

You can play with suspense (and with setup and payoff) in other ways to unsettle the reader. Having things go not quite the way the reader expects them to will, in general, make them uncomfortable and eager to see the problem resolved. You just want to make sure that problem is resolved.

Say your main character, Sarah, checks into a hotel. The staff all greet her warmly as “Paige.” When Sarah corrects them, the staff seem confused, and they don’t actually listen to her—they just keep calling her Paige.

That’s kind of creepy—it’s definitely intriguing. Who’s Paige? Why are the staff so vehement about all this? We’re unsettled, and we want to know what’s going on. If we keep reading and the novelist never gives us any kind of a reason for why this is going on—in other words, it’s dropped—this immediately becomes frustrating because it’s a waste of time. There was no need for it—it didn’t matter to the story.

How to write a creepy book

Now that you know how writing creepy books works, you’re ready to get started on your own. We’re going to talk about the process from brainstorming all the way to revisions, so buckle up!

Mindmap

First, you’ll want to brainstorm—I suggest a mindmap. Mind Maps are word-association tools used to generate new ideas quickly, and they’re great for visual learners.

To make one, find a mind-mapping software. Or, do it the old-fashioned way and write a word down in the center of a page. Write a line coming out from that word, and write something you might associate with it. We’re writing a creepy book, so we want things to stay on theme. If your first word is ‘nighttime,’ your associated words might be ‘haunting,’ ‘nightmare,’ ‘sleep paralysis demon,’ or ‘storm.’

Do the same thing with those associated words until you’re all out of ideas. You should end up with what looks like a big web of ideas, images, characters, and plot points.

Outline

Take all the ideas, images, characters, and plot points you generated using your mind map and turn them into an outline.

There are a few ways to go about this, none of them wrong: you might make a bullet-point list of the beats in your story, and you might include images or bits of dialogue as notes off to the side. An outline could be index cards taped to a piece of posterboard or to your wall, with each index card containing a nugget from your mind map.

This is basically a guide for you to use while you’re drafting so that if you get stuck, lost, or scared, you’ve got a way to keep going instead of giving up. Do whatever works for you. Some people (myself included) like to do a combination brainstorm, outline, and rough draft—others find that separating these into different processes saves them time.

Rough Draft

With your outline handy to serve as your guide, you’re ready to start the drafting process. When you’re writing the rough draft of your novel, your objective is to complete the story as quickly as possible. 

Pause as little as you can—if you hit a plot hole or unforeseen snag that threatens to stall the draft for days, if not weeks, make a note, accept that you’ll have to fix it later, and just move on to the next thing (that’s what your outline is for, remember?). If you think of a new idea, make a note (try a separate document or notebook if that helps to keep things sorted) and keep moving.

Rough drafts do not need to be good—in fact, they’re not going to be. Any given rough draft is going to be almost entirely rewritten during revisions anyway. (I’m talking to myself a little bit, here, as someone who tends to let perfectionism hinder the actual completion of a draft.) Jane Smiley said that “every first draft is perfect because all the first draft has to do is exist,” and she’s perfectly right.

Revise

Almost all of the writing process takes place in revisions. You’re going to rewrite almost everything you wrote in your rough draft several times. I don’t say this to overwhelm you, but rather to help you set reasonable expectations—this is going to take a while, and that’s normal.

But how do you avoid endlessly rewriting, creating new problems, and working in circles?

Keep your story top of mind. Your first few passes at revision should be about things like character’s motives, pacing, fixing plot holes—structural stuff. Are you setting up a good satisfying scare for your audience, and if so, are you paying it off later? Once you’ve got the structure down, you’ll start looking at word choice. Are you using tone to set a creepy atmosphere when you want to?

While much of the drafting process is up to you, it is really recommended that you do structural edits before line edits. Otherwise, you could labor over sentences, paragraphs, pages, or even chapters that end up just getting deleted.

Next Step

Now that you know what makes a book creepy, and have an overview of how to write one, it’s time to get started. Check out this resource to help you take the next step.

That doesn’t necessarily mean it’s gotten any easier to write, though. Horror, in particular, can be extremely difficult to get just right. It’s often a fine line between scary and corny, and even if you’ve nailed it for one reader, you might have crossed it for others. How do you craft a story that’s guaranteed to be scary without making it cheesy? How do you make a horror story scary while keeping it believable?

How do you write good horror?

In this article, we’ll give you five tips for writing horror. We’re going to talk about what horror is, cover some subgenres of horror, talk about what to avoid when you’re writing horror, and give you some tools you can use to make your next horror story great.

What is Horror?

Before we can really dig into writing horror, we need to understand what it is and how it functions as a genre. So what is horror, exactly?

Wikipedia aptly sums horror up as “a genre of fiction which is intended to frighten, scare, or disgust.” It is “often divided into the subgenres of psychological horror and supernatural horror,” with the latter subgenre falling under the ‘speculative fiction’ umbrella.

You may have a story that includes elements of horror, like suspense or supernatural happenings—take Twilight, for example. But these elements on their own don’t necessarily make a story horror if the story isn’t intended to scare the reader. Horror makes you (or is meant to make you) feel uneasy, disgusted, repulsed, and generally bad.

Because horror draws on fear, which is a very primal human emotion, it can be a fascinating place to explore people’s opinions. You can learn a lot about a certain society or facet of society based on what they were publishing as horror at any given time.

Dracula of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, for example, was actually inspired by criminal anthropologists—he was meant to “look like” a criminal since they thought they could create a physical profile of common criminals. This tells us a lot about the society Dracula came out of, what they thought of crime, and how they approached solving it.

Horror Subgenres

When you set out to write horror, it’s important to know what subgenre you’re working in. Not only will this give you a place to start reading other horror novels (which you should definitely be doing—that’s the first unofficial tip), but it’ll give you a sense of what kinds of tropes and plot points readers will expect when they’re reading your work. Seeking out different subgenres will also help you find the perfect niche in which to work. This list isn’t exhaustive, but it covers the basics:

1. Gothic fiction

Gothic fiction is kind of the foundation for much of what we know as horror. This covers Edgar Allen Poe, Mary Shelley, and, of course, Bram Stoker. Gothic fiction includes many elements from romantic literature, so you’ll see a lot of people venturing into the foggy mist and happening upon something awful. Nature is meant to be a revealing force which makes people confront themselves—gothic literature is also generally very focused on the plights of the individual.

2. Psychological horror

Psychological horror is one of the two big subgenres we listed earlier. It doesn’t include supernatural elements, and it aims to uncover the disturbing depths of the human psyche. You’ll often see things like unreliable narrators in a psychological horror—an unreliable narrator is meant to make you question the events you’re witnessing, which puts you in an inherently uncomfortable and untrusting headspace where reality is constantly questioned.

3. Supernatural/paranormal horror

Supernatural/paranormal horror was the second big subgenre of horror, and, as you may have guessed, it’s horror that uses supernatural elements. Anything with ghosts, monsters, demons, magic, cryptids, or spirits is going to fall under this umbrella.

4. Body horror

BookRiot describes body horror as a subgenre focused on the mutilation or violation of the human body—you’ll see this combined with slashers, monster stories, zombie stories, and things of that sort. Frankenstein is a classic example.

5. Splatterpunk

Splatterpunk is a horror genre focused on extreme depictions of extreme violence. There’s often a ton of abuse, sexual violence, and things of that nature—nothing is off limits, and everything is intended to be as horrifically violent and gruesome as possible.

6. Erotic horror

Erotic horror is exactly what it sounds like. Where most horror aims to scare you, erotic horror also aims to, you know, excite the reader. Most erotica will do these through pretty conventional means, but erotic horror uses elements of horror combined with the regular stuff to get its readers going.

What to Avoid When Writing Horror

Now that we have a baseline understanding of what horror is and what kinds of horror there are to work with, let’s cover some general “don’ts” when it comes to writing horror.

1. Violence for violence’s sake

New horror writers sometimes have a tendency to confuse ‘intense’ with ‘scary.’ When writing in a subgenre like splatterpunk, you can definitely expect to see more taboo acts of violence written in more graphic detail than you might see elsewhere—unless you’re working in splatterpunk, though, you don’t necessarily always want to reach for the most disgusting thing to happen at all possible times.

This isn’t for prudish reasons, either. It’s because while you want to scare your reader, you still want to tell a good story. If you’re trying to be as edgy as possible without thinking about what motivates these plot points, you’re probably losing track of your story, and that’s going to be frustrating for your reader. If the reader isn’t following along with the story, they’re not settled enough to be scared by your extreme violence—they’re probably just frustrated and trying to figure out how it fits into the narrative.

2. Bad pacing

Similarly, you want to avoid keeping your scariness level at a constant eleven out of ten. Again, intense doesn’t mean scary, and you can’t maintain a super high level of tension for very long without hitting the ceiling. You definitely want to keep the suspense at a constant simmer, but you also want dramatic contrast in your stories. Failing to provide this contrast will often mess with a reader’s suspension of disbelief, and instead of being stressed out, they’ll be bored.

3. Lawless paranormal activity

If there are paranormal elements in the story, you want to avoid having them be completely random and overpowered. If a ghost can do anything at any time with seemingly no limitations or motives, it might feel cheap to the reader. Similarly, if random paranormal events are happening without a clear motive other than ‘wouldn’t this be crazy/scary,’ readers might get confused or, again, bored, because they’re unclear what’s driving the action in the story.

Tips for Writing Horror

If you’ve found yourself doing some of the things we just talked about, don’t worry! We’re going to talk about how to correct these issues (and give a few extra tips for good measure).

Be intentional with scary moments

Instead of having scary things happen out of nowhere, or just because it seems shocking, ask yourself what’s motivating these moments. If you want to have your character stumble upon a dead body, that’s all well and good, but there should be some kind of reason for it. That dead body should matter to the story as a whole—nothing in a novel should happen once and then never matter at all for the rest of the read.

Ask yourself these questions: how do your characters arrive at this moment? How do they deal with it? How does this moment affect the rest of the plot, or how does it set the characters up for their next move?

Have rules for paranormal happenings

You don’t need to explain the paranormal activity in your book to the reader, but you should understand how it works. Are there places a ghost can’t or won’t go? Why or why not? How do werewolves work in your book? Having these paranormal creatures act in a consistent way will make it easier to build suspense—it’s hard to get worried about your characters if it seems like they’re in the same amount of trouble all the time, and if there’s no way to tell what a ghost or monster is capable of, that trouble is hard to gauge.

Use suspense

Speaking of which!

Suspense is your absolute best friend when you’re writing horror. Using it correctly means letting the reader know enough that they’re afraid, but not so much that they can tell what’s going to happen. It also means smart readers will probably be able to put it together before you want them to, but ideally, you’ll have written it so well that they don’t care if they can guess what happens next.

Have rules for what everyone can do and set them up. Let’s say you’ve got a ghost who can walk through walls, and let’s say you’ve got a climax where the main characters are barricaded in a basement, thinking themselves safe at last. If you haven’t shown us that the ghost can walk through walls before now, it’ll kind of feel like it’s coming out of nowhere. It might still be scary, but it won’t feel earned.

If, however, you’ve shown us early on that the ghost can walk through walls, the reader will be nervous the whole time those characters are in the basement. When is the ghost going to show up? We don’t know! This adds an immediate layer of tension.

• Related: 5 Common Plotting Mistakes to Avoid

Use your characters

Remember how I said that scary moments should be motivated? In most stories, characters drive the plot, not the other way around. Your characters, their specific fears, and their specific personalities should be at the center of your novel. Even if you have a horror story about an average guy dealing with a horrible situation, their averageness should matter. You also want the events of the story to be particularly frightening for your characters—it should draw on their fears.

Ask yourself these questions when developing your characters: how would this specific character deal with this situation? How is this particularly scary for this particular character? What does this character learn about themselves as a result of this plot point?

Don’t forget atmosphere and sensory detail

Last, but certainly not least, don’t skip out on the setting. Horror relies on not just uncomfortable happenings, but an uncomfortable atmosphere—even in the lulls, we shouldn’t feel safe. Lean into this by describing the setting. Put your characters in crowded environments, smelly basements, dank corridors, etc. Describe these things using sense details that make the reader feel like they’re in it, too. This will amp up the overall sense of discomfort, and it’ll prime your reader to be startled by the next big scare you’ve got in store for them.

Next step

Now that you know what to do to write a good horror story (and you know what to avoid), it’s time to start writing your horror book.

As soon as the seasons start to shift from summer to fall, it seems like every writerly corner of the Internet becomes consumed with one question and one question only:

Are you going to do NaNoWriMo this year?

If you’re asking yourself that question, you’ve come to the right place. In this article, we’ll talk about what NaNoWriMo is, the NaNoWriMo rules (official and unofficial), and some tips I’ve personally compiled to help you make the most of your NaNoWriMo experience.

What is NaNoWriMo?

Let’s consult the 2009 vlogbrothers video titled “NaNoWriMo!!!” In it, John Green defines NaNoWriMo like this: “In case you don’t know what NaNoWriMo is, it’s National Novel Writing Month, an annual event in which people try to write a fifty-thousand word novel in a single month.”

That sums it up nicely! NaNoWriMo takes place during the month of November, and its goal is to get its participants to write a novel of fifty-thousand words by the end of the month. Participants make accounts on the contest’s site and enter their daily word counts there. The site also uses daily word counts to project how long it will take the participant to finish their novel (even if they don’t win NaNoWriMo), how a participant’s word count compares to others in the area, and, of course, how close they are to completing their goal.

Often, online communities sort of drop everything to focus on NaNoWriMo. It’s nearly inescapable, and it’s not hard to understand why. Writing is often an intensely solitary activity, and while some writers might have in-person writer friends, a lot don’t. Events like NaNoWriMo give writers a real sense of community as they work towards their common goal, and this is the real magic of NaNoWriMo.

The First Three Rules for NaNoWriMo

We’ve talked about how to formally enter NaNoWriMo (setting up an account on the site linked above), but what are the rules? Surely it can’t be as simple as ‘write fifty-thousand words in a month.’

When NaNoWriMo was first founded, there was a set of rules governing how the contest would play out and what participation counted towards the end goal. Kelsey McKinney, writing for Vox, outlines these foundational rules, which were put in place by Chris Baty in 2000:

1. The writing project must be new
2. It must be written by a single person
3. It has to be finished by midnight on November 30th

This is all straightforward, and the rules for NaNo haven’t changed much in the years since. Now, if you look on the Wikipedia page for current rules, they’re mostly just an expansion on the existing criteria. The contest begins at the start of the month and ends at the end of the month, the goal is fifty-thousand words, et cetera.

Do I have to follow these rules to participate?

What if you’re working with another writer or with a group of writers on a novel, or what if you’re working on a novel that’s going to exceed fifty-thousand words (almost all of them do)? What if you’ve got a project you’ve started, and you want to use NaNoWriMo to really focus on it?

That’s fine!

As the Wikipedia page points out, NaNoWriMo is a “self-challenge,” which means it’s mostly set up for participants to push themselves toward the goal. There’s not someone from the NaNoWriMo organization standing over your shoulder and going “uh, that’s not a brand-new idea. You already had that file on your computer. Pack up your pens and go!”

As long as you have put fifty-thousand words in, you’ve won the contest.

Does this cheapen the deal? Not really. The biggest reward participants get for completing NaNo is the achievement itself: writing fifty-thousand words in a month. Sometimes NaNo will offer to print a copy of the participant’s draft or something like that, but usually, you get a certificate and a pat on the back. Most of the reward is in the work itself.

So if you want to follow the rules, follow them! If not, cool! It’s your life.

My (very unofficial) NaNoWriMo Rules: Tips for Having a Good Time

The existing rules for NaNoWriMo are just fine, but as someone who’s been a participant every year for a while, here are a few tips to making the most of your NaNoWriMo experience.

1. Don’t set out to write a novel

I know, I know, this is kind of the whole point of NaNoWriMo, but hear me out.

You’re almost definitely not going to write a great novel in a month. First drafts are rarely any good, and the first draft of something you manically typed over the course of a month is probably also not going to be very good.

John Green points this out in “NaNoWriMo!!!,” saying “as a rule, no great book can be written in a month.”

This isn’t to say you shouldn’t try to do your best or you shouldn’t try to write a book. It’s just to say that you should keep your expectations reasonable. What you’re going to end up with is fifty-thousand words—that’s all you can be sure of. It probably will not be a complete draft, since most novels are much more than fifty thousand words, and it will definitely be rough.

I like to approach NaNoWriMo as a giant word sprint. For anyone who doesn’t know: a word sprint is where you set a timer for a short amount of time, usually five to twenty minutes, and write as much as you can without stopping until the timer goes off. The objective of a word sprint is just to get something on the page—you can work with something, but not with nothing.

And as someone who has a really difficult time getting an imperfect something on the page (preferring the always-perfect-but-not-actually-real-and-therefore-unsellable-nothing), this makes NaNoWriMo a great opportunity for some actual trying. You’re going to have to revise your first draft no matter what you do.

As John Green goes on to say in the video, “No great book can be written in a first draft no matter how long it takes you to write it…NaNoWriMo gives us discipline and it gives us permission to suck, which are the two things you most need if you’re going to be a novelist.”

2. Use NaNoWriMo for stuck projects

Speaking of getting an imperfect something on the page: I like to use NaNoWriMo strategically as a way to work on existing projects. This is in direct violation of the rules, but it works out nicely for me.

Like I said before, NaNoWriMo is a self-challenge. There’s not a NaNoWriMo police and there’s not a NaNoWriMo judge coming to live with you for the next month to keep you in line. You can pretty much use this contest for whatever project you’ve got that needs to be worked on. I personally like to use it to get lots of words written—sometimes these words go towards one draft, but sometimes they go towards work, short stories, poems, or whatever I need to do that month.

This might sound kind of antithetical to the spirit of the challenge. Couldn’t I do that any other month? Why use NaNoWriMo just to knock out my to-do list?

Glad you asked!

3. Get involved with the NaNoWriMo community

Again, in my opinion, the biggest appeal to NaNoWriMo is in the community that comes up around it. People post their word count goals and share their works-in-progress (#wip) on Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, probably also TikTok (somehow, I’m not on WriterTok, but I assume it exists since BookTok does), probably also everywhere else. It’s free to join and it invites writers to try and do an impossible task, which is something that just kind of appeals to most writers.

NaNoWriMo also offers the ability to add friends on their website. This allows you to check on your friends’ progress, take a look at their projects, and generally connect with other people participating in the contest.

When I look back on the years that I’ve done NaNoWriMo, I remember a little of the projects I worked on—the Pinterest boards, the character templates, PrepTober events, stuff like that.

But mostly I remember the glow of my computer screen at one o’clock in the morning, my heavy eyelids and tired retinas, my hands steadily developing a cramp which would go on to haunt my mid-twenties with a passion (seriously, take care of your wrists, fellow typists). I remember telling my friends the moment I hit my word count goal and the moments my friends hit theirs.

Like I said before, writing is often lonely. There aren’t a ton of opportunities to connect with other authors working on their own projects with a ferocity like people bring to NaNoWriMo. Take advantage of the community, and some of the friendships you find might last well past NaNoWriMo.

Now, to my last unofficial rule…

4. Use NaNoWriMo to develop some writerly discipline

Before you get mad at me: I definitely am not saying that you should be writing fifty-thousand words every month. In fact, I would argue that you definitely shouldn’t be. Drafting is only one small part of the writing process, and not every day is going to be a drafting day. Fifty-thousand words is, respectfully, a crap-ton of words, and if you’re writing that many that often, they’re probably not great words (and I say this as a once-ghostwriter who used to crank out thirty-thousand words a week on the regular).

That being said, writing does require a ton of work, mostly in revision. Being a capital N Novelist is going to involve writing when you do not feel like it and making writing a regular, structured part of your life. It might not be every day, but it’s going to have to be regular.

So, use NaNoWriMo to develop habits that work for you. Take note of what time of day you prefer to write, or what sorts of drinks you like to sip while you work, or whether you like to write outdoors or inside.

Does freewriting suit you best? What about typing? Maybe you love Microsoft Word, or maybe you’re really into Scrivener. Keep track of these kinds of things and make an effort to form some kind of schedule or regiment—this can be edited or changed as your needs fluctuate, but just as you can’t write a perfect first draft, you can’t become a disciplined author without at least a little effort.

• Related: How to Prepare for NaNoWriMo
• Related: Preptober: How to Prep for NaNoWriMo and Make the Most of It

Bottom Line

Use NaNoWriMo to ask yourself what it takes to get you to sit down and work on your novel regularly. Set monthly writing goals. Then, take these habits you built during NaNoWriMo into your future writing projects, and you’ll be well on your way to success.

The title of your book is maybe one of the most important things about it, aside from the cover. 

It’s got a lot of work to do: the title needs to be memorable, it needs to fit in with other books like yours, it needs to catch your reader’s eye, and it needs to represent the book as a whole. It seems unfair that one single title should represent tens of thousands of words, but such is the job of an author. 

Writers use tons of different gimmicks to make their titles catchy or trendy. You may already know about the “blank of blank and blank” trend in fantasy, especially YA fantasy, which some readers criticize because it makes the titles all sound the same. This is one example of writers using a specific trend to slot their book in with their contemporaries, focusing on unique nouns to add a creative twist. 

Another way writers might make their book title stand out is by making it funny. 

In this article, we’re going to talk about funny book titles, why you might use one, when you should avoid using one, which types of books use funny titles, and we’ll give you some examples of funny book titles in different genres. 

What is a funny book title?

Humor is subjective, so it’s difficult to say with absolute certainty which book titles qualify as ‘funny’ book titles. But that doesn’t mean we can’t take a stab at defining funny book titles. 

A book title that tries to make a joke, advertises a funny story, or generally is worded in a way that tries to evoke laughter from the reader is considered a funny book title. It might not make you laugh, but you can tell it’s supposed to. 

These titles are often a little wordier than your standard title, and they usually include a play on words of some sort. They might have a subtitle with a more serious explanation about what the book is about, or they might have a subtitle with an additional joke—it depends on the book. 

There are also book titles that are funny without meaning to be funny. For the sake of this article, I’ll refer to these as ‘embarrassing’ book titles. Unlike a funny book title, an embarrassing book title isn’t trying to be funny. The reaction it gets isn’t what the author likely intended. 

In this article, we’re talking about writing a book and title that is funny on purpose. And I understand that sometimes it’s tricky to tell—again, humor is subjective. But we’ll walk you through a few examples in a minute to give you a better idea of the difference. 

Why use a funny title for a book?

There are plenty of reasons why an author might use a funny title for their book, even if it doesn’t seem like an obvious choice at first. 

You’re writing a comedy 

Most obviously, funny titles are perfect for comedies! If you’re writing a comedy, why not prove to your reader before they’ve even opened the book that they’re in for a laugh? 

This also lets you give the reader a sense of what kind of comedy they’re in for. If it’s a dark comedy, maybe the title reflects that, for example. 

If you want your reader to also have a sense of what the book will actually be about, you can use subtitles to explain further. This gives you more space to crack jokes and advertise your book. “Oops, Dropped It: Things You Don’t Want to Hear From Your Surgeon,” (a title I made up) both tells us what the book will be about and gives us an example of the kind of comedy we can expect moving forward. 

You want to hook the reader 

Jokes make for a fantastic hook because they’re memorable. Think about all of the Netflix specials that have been memed to death—people quote and remember these snippets because they made them laugh. 

Humor is also a great way to invite a reader into your story. People are generally attracted to content they find funny, and if your title catches their attention, they’re more likely to want to read the rest of the book. 

To maximize the effectiveness of a funny title as a hook, keep it short, punchy, and catchy. 

You’re writing with a comedic tone 

Maybe you’re not writing a comedy, exactly, but you are writing something with a lot of humor in it. This might be a memoir about your life told in a light-hearted way, or it might be a fun action-adventure romp full of quips. 

Basically, it doesn’t have to be a comedy to have a funny title. If you’re writing something that involves a lot of humor, you’ll want to reflect that in the title. Making the title funny is an effective way of doing that—it lets the reader know what kind of tone they can expect for the rest of the book.

You want to be relatable or casual 

Jokes are also a powerful tool when it comes to relatability. Comedy is a fantastic tool for bridging different communities for exactly this reason—jokes just make people feel comfortable, and they make people understand one another better. 

If one of the goals in your book is a relatable, casual tone, you’ve probably got a fair amount of humor in there. It’s hard to maintain that kind of tone without it. And a funny, catchy title will help advertise that relatability to your reader. 

When you should avoid using a funny title 

While there are more chances than you might think to try a funny title, there are also still plenty of times you should avoid it and opt for a more serious one instead. 

It doesn’t match the tone of your book 

Most importantly: you don’t want a funny title if the book itself isn’t comedic or casual in tone. 

If you’re writing dark fantasy, for example, featuring lots of beheadings and very few bouts of laughter, having a joke title won’t work. It’s false advertising, and not only does that mean a reader might be upset when the book doesn’t live up to the title’s promise, but it also means readers looking for a dark fantasy might pass up your book because it looks too light-hearted and silly. 

Most adult fiction books don’t benefit from having a funny title—we’ll talk more about this in a little bit. 

It’s corny or too overdone 

There are also times when you could use a funny title, but probably shouldn’t. 

This is where we get into subjective territory again. A joke that I think is corny or overdone might be funny to you, and vice versa. We could talk all day long about what makes a joke unfunny, but instead, I’ll leave you with a few guidelines. 

Dated jokes, like memes or contemporary slang, generally don’t age well. The title should be funny to people in your target audience—adults might not think Captain Underpants: Attack of the Talking Toilets is funny, but for most little kids, it’s a knee-slapper (and they’re right). A funny title that looks like every other quirky self-help title probably won’t age well and will probably be forgettable.

Basically, you want to avoid dated phrases if at all possible.  

Use a book title generator and brainstorm your own list. You can also take a look at other contemporary titles in your genre to gain some inspiration. Then, run your title by some people in your target audience.

Types of books that use funny titles

There are a few different categories of books that might use funny titles—let’s look at a few. 

Comedies 

First and most obviously, comedies might have funny titles. Like I said earlier, this makes sense: what better way to advertise a funny book than to give it a funny title? 

Memoir 

Memoirs might also have funny titles. This is usually to signal that the memoir will be relatable and laid-back. Comedians might also use funny titles because, well, they’re comedians, and the book to come is going to be full of their humor. 

Kidlit and Middle-Grade Novels 

Children’s books also use funny titles. They might do this because, again, the book to come is a comedy (like Captain Underpants or Diary of a Wimpy Kid), and they might also use them for relatability. Kids respond really well to humor, and they want to have fun, so a funny book title is often a promise that they’re about to have a blast. 

Self-Help and Motivational Books 

Self-help books and motivational books use funny titles to get their tone across to the reader. Usually, a self-help book with a funny title is trying to tell the reader that this is going to be a no-nonsense, no-B.S. approach to dealing with a given problem or circumstance. 

In other words, the funny title is meant to be relatable. Someone might see that title and think to themselves, “haha, yeah! Finally, someone who gets it. This isn’t going to be like those condescending, boring self-help books—this person understands what it’s like for real people to go through these real issues.” 

And once they think that, they’re infinitely more likely to pick up the book and hear the author out on whatever ideas they’ve got. 

Examples of funny book titles in different genres

Let’s take a look at some funny book titles across different genres. 

• Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney 

Not only is this title genius for its use of ‘diary,’ which promises a personal, secretive experience (kind of like putting ‘don’t read this’ on the cover—it’s foolproof in getting kids to read it), but it also describes the narrator as a wimpy kid. This is self-deprecating humor done flawlessly. 

• The Adventures of Captain Underpants by Dav Pilkey 

For starters, ‘Captain Underpants’ is a genius idea for a superhero. Additionally, each subsequent Captain Underpants book has a different and stellar title. I gave you the Attack of the Talking Toilets example earlier—they’re all great. 

• Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (and Other Concerns) by Mindy Kaling 

Here’s an example of a funny title used for a memoir. Here, Kaling uses a relatable situation to hook the reader. Who hasn’t wondered if their friends were hanging out without them? The parenthetical adds a punch of humor, and the entire thing makes Kaling, a celebrity, seem more approachable and relatable. 

• The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams 

This title is a great example of having a title that matches the tone of your story. This title perfectly mirrors the funny, unusual prose to come, and it’s incredibly catchy, which makes it memorable. 

• Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs?: Big Questions from Tiny Mortals by Caitlin Doughty

This is a nonfiction book wherein Doughty discusses death and its surrounding processes. But this punchy title promises us that despite the heavy subject matter, this isn’t going to be a super heavy reading experience—for one, we know she’s talking to children, and for another, we know she’s funny. 

• On the John: A Devotional for Dads by Omer Redden

This title is a great play on words, right? A devotional on the Gospel of John that, once you look at the cover, you realize has some toilet humor built-in. It’s something new, something fresh, something that’s honestly a bit out there. Who has ever thought of mixing Bible commentary with dad jokes and toilet humor? But alas, dads are loving it.

Next Steps

Grab a copy of one of these books and you’ll learn how authors use humor in innovative ways! And if you have a favorite humor book, post it in the comments and let us know.

Working on a funny book yourself? Check out this free training.