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I know this is going to sound very self-serving, and I apologize for it, but if you can write comedy, you can pretty much write anything, because it's the hardest. It's the most technically demanding, the most precisely evaluated form of writing. People know if it works or not. There's a big button marked 'fail,' and that's when nobody laughs.

In order for comedy to be funny you have to play the truth of the moment. But if you're not being completely truthful to the basis of the character, its not going to be funny.

And write what you love - don't feel pressured to write serious prose if what you like is to be funny.

You really have no idea whether or not what you're writing is funny. In stand-up and sketch comedy, you know right away and you can make your changes accordingly.

You just tell a good story where you're funny and it makes people laugh.

I think what is important for things to be funny is if you the listener, or the reader, get a chance to supply the humor of it yourself.

Too many writers get stuck in the trap of writing what they think is funny and not considering who they are writing it for.

I would say just start writing. You've got to write every day. Copy someone that you like if you think that perhaps could become your sound, too. I did that with Hemingway, and I thought I was writing just like Hemingway. Then all of a sudden it occurred to me - he didn't have a sense of humor. I don't know anything he's written that's funny.

At the end of the day I'm writing comedy. If you get too realistic as a comedy writer with your disasters, it stops being funny.

Humor writing requires a rhythm and timing, as well as some kind of connection to the reader, and I think that's how I tap into it.