Welcome to Gaia! ::

The hardest thing I find to do is to make a reading audience laugh. I have picked up books or articles that are bursting with wit, some that make me actually laugh out loud, and I've never been able to do the same.

Is this a particularly hard thing to do or is it just me?

Perhaps it is just a personal weakness if mine, because everyone else seems to manage to write humour fine. I can include witty banter in my dialogue, potentially amusing scenes, but nothing that I suspect would actually make someone chuckle to themselves as they read it.

Has anyone else written comedy before?

((I'm British, by the way, so the way I've spelled 'humour' is entirely intentional.))

If you're not good at humor don't sweat it, it's not everyone's cup of tea and not every book needs it. Best advice I can give is to quote the above poster, that is to say, don't force it, just let it flow naturally. I know, it's not much help, but great humor is natural, it's not contrived or story-boarded, it just shows up. If it does, congratulations, if not, better luck next time. wink

Precisely. Humour will come in bits and pieces generally, and will follow the tone your characters have set. Forcing it will only make things worse.

(Not British, but feels that the English language's version of spelling in America has become degraded, and thusly spells it that way intentionally)

Well, humor is relative. If you write something that may cause one person to laugh out loud it will undoubtedly leave another high and dry. When writing humor it's very important (more than in most genres) to know who your target audience is in order to appeal to them. If you are writing with your own sense of humor you can create a masterpiece, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the people who read it will laugh about it. And while on that note, if you are gauging people’s reactions as your basis for how amusing they find something (I couldn’t quite tell from your post) some people aren’t as “on their sleeves” about it. I personally can find something outrageously funny and not even crack a smile on the outside… That’s something to keep in mind as well

Generally, humor may seem funny originally, but not so much the second time around; that's just how it goes. I find that's what happens most times I slip something chuckle-worthy into my work.*shrug*

You just have to go with it, and see where it takes ya.
(I spelled everthing here the way I meant to, it just so happens that I try to spell things how I'd say them.)

I think you may have unintentionally started an inside joke with this intended-spelling thing...

Humor for me comes naturally. I write witty things that make my friends crack up out loud. I also do funny poetry. You just have to think of something that makes you laugh, then make it funnier by writing it. Write it in a odd place, like being stuck in a library with your ex best friend that hates you for insulting her. Add some weird things, like pretend you called them stupid a couple days ago. You by accident say: Your not that stupid. Just a little!" Oops, I thought.
"WHAT?!" she screeched, and people started looking. Then some security guards come, and thought a fight happened. "Did someone throw up? Or a fight?" The guards ask. They see us, and say "Oh. Just YOU." then they walk away.