Today, I am wrestling with how to write a funny but serious apology scene.
Neil Gaimon is on record as saying that to become a successful writer you need to finish stuff. To that end, I have declared this lockdown period as a season of getting things finished. This is where I encountered the need to write a funny but serious apology scene.
A draft novel, which is 99% finished has a gaping hole about two-thirds of the way in where I simply stopped writing a chapter and left myself a note to “come back and figure this bit out later”.
Damn you, past me, why did you do this to me?
My problem scene is slap bang inside a series of daft and funny adventures filled with sarcasm and rather silly comedy. The lead character has built up a fair old amount of karmic debt that they need to pay off in the hopes of saving the world. I want this scene to seem like an attempt to put things truly right. The outcome of that effort drives the rest of the story. That means that this scene must be both a realistic-sounding apology while also remain as funny as what came before and what comes after.
Even if it cannot be “as funny” it still needs to be amusing.
The problem is further compounded by the fact that I am dealing with a cast of characters highly prone to quipping and walking off mid-scene. Their reaction to a sincere apology needs to be one that allows the audience to understand why they would stick around. Which means it needs to be heartfelt and restorative. The characters need to grow closer as a result.
Heartfelt and restorative does not sit well with sarcastic, bickering, and frequent amusing misunderstandings. There is no character available to be the victim of the sharp quips.
The only way forward that I can see is the one form of comedy I dislike watching, reading, or liking. One where you as the audience feel embarrassment that the character should be feeling. The kind where you sit there going, “Oh god, no, you didn’t just say that – what are you thinking?”
That is not my style so I am not going to use it.
Which leaves me back at the centre of my problem. A heartfelt apology scene that is funny in its own right.
I’m currently all out of clues. If I figure out how to write such a scene, I’ll share what I learned in one of the blogs that I write for.
