Ernie Witham’s humor writing workshop is a tradition at the Santa Barbara Writers Conference.
If you think that you can’t write funny, think again. Humor is everywhere. Every vacation, weekend outing, family function — even a trip to the mall — is fodder for humor, and capturing it in writing is something you can learn.
Ernie Witham has always had a knack for recognizing odd opportunities for humor. Ask him what happened when he went shopping for something special for his wife’s birthday and told the clerk at the lingerie shop that he was pretty sure her favorite color was brown.
Ernie was a regular in Ian Bernard’s Humor workshop at SBWC and easily won the SBWC Best Humor Award some years ago. That launched his career as a humor columnist. When Ian retired as the leader of SBWC’s Humor workshop, Ernie was the obvious choice to take over the role.
His workshop is “The Craft of Humor Writing,” where the group concentrates on finding humor in everyday situations, getting it onto the page, and rewriting it to make it funnier and more saleable. The workshop includes lectures on technique, in-class exercises, read and critique sessions, and valuable marketing tips.
Whether you want to write a humor column or add humor to your novel or screenplay, this workshop will help you learn to see, think and write funnier. Students should bring works-in-progress in any genre to read in class.
Ernie Witham has been writing the syndicated column, “Ernie’s World,” for the Montecito Journal for nearly two decades. He’s the author of three humor books: Ernie’s World the Book, A Year in the Life of a “Working” Writer, and his newest, Where Are Pat and Ernie Now? His humorous writing has appeared in magazines and numerous anthologies, including more than twenty Chicken Soup for the Soul books.
He has led humor workshops in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Santa Barbara, Whidbey Island, and on Cape Cod. Witham finds great pleasure in helping people get their funny stories onto the page and into circulation.
He lives by these three goals: First goal is to write. Second goal is to get published. Third goal is to get paid.
