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Laughter in Stories

anubis111

TMF Regular
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Jan 29, 2006
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As I've been writing the next few installments of my series and read over the new stories others have been putting out, a question has come to mind. What are people's thoughts on laughter in stories? I've come to see more writers "tell" about the laughter than let the reader "hear it." For example:

"She threw her head back and cackled wildly as the long nails of her tormentor danced and scratched across her sensitive skin."

versus

"NOHOHO HAHAA! WAHAHAIT! PLEHEHEASE HAHAHAHAHA! PLEEEEEEEEHEHEHEHASE!" She laughed."


My question was which one do people prefer more? Do the long lines of HAHA's and HEHE's numb your mind and hurt your eyes or do you see them as a way to better visualize how the person being tickled is actually laughing? I know a good blending of the two can make an amazing story but if it came down to one or the other which would you pick?
 
Personally, as a reader (and occasional writer) I like a mix of both. There is actually a third method, which I prefer, whereby the laughing is simply written in lower case, as opposed to capitals. I also prefer that when writers use either of these that they write in a way that the Lee would actually laugh. In your example above it would be better written as -
"NO-HO-HO! HA-HA! WA-HAI-HAIT! PLEEE-HEE-HEASE! HA-HA-HA-HA-HA! PLEEEEEEEE-HEE-HEE-HEASE!"
I try to hear in my head how the Lee would actually laugh. I have also tried mouthing the dialogue to myself whilst scribbling notes. Whatever works!
 
Oh I know, I tend to use the lowercase for giggling and light reactions and caps for more of the loud laughing. I was just wondering in general if people find the typed out H's and A's to distracting or not.
 
Can’t explain it, but the capitalized strings of laughter really make a story for me most of the time.
 
I prefer when it's a mix of both yeah, couldn't really pick just one or the other.
 
Though no offence to one specific author but they did a version I didn't really care for where the laughter and talking were just separated like "HAHAHAHA ALRIGHT!"
 
I like the art behind stories, the skill to keep the reader interested in words.
To me putting a stone on a key to make it appear whatever times is not so much of a skill ;-)
 
Interesting question, indeed! Actualy I prefer laughing to be written in capitals, as in your second example, but rather spaced, like Joker Jack made it. For me capital cases mean loud laugh, that stresses victim's vulnarability and ticklisness: big caracters - loud laughing - more excitment! That's how I perceive this.
 
I prefer narrative description of the laughter to the HAHAHAHAHA so common in stories. In fact, I tend to skip by those lines in search of the next tickling act in the story.
 
Maaaaaann....the capitalized laughter and utterances are something I feel is key to any story...for me.

That being said, I think doubling up works. Setting up the reaction (bucking, giggling, screaming), manner (hard, incoherently, at the top of his/her lungs), and transitioning to the laughter and dialogue.

Also, cursing in dialogue makes it real and hot...again, imo.

Sent from my LGL164VL using Tapatalk
 
Preferring to hear laughter I think was a part of why I'm not all too big on gags.
 
What an interesting survey of responses.

I tend to mostly skip (perhaps skim) long strings of laughter and I generally don't write them out when I write. It's interesting and wonderful to see that some people really love them.
 
I haven't written anything in a long time, but i always used both descriptive verbiage and varied interjections to more precisely create a word picture for the type and tenor of laughter. For example, "ha ha" in lower case to denote more smoldering giggles or "HA HA" to pronounce loud laughter. I find these interjections important to characterize inflection of laughter, such as "AAIIEE" or broken pleas like "Plee he he heease," rather than just the laughter itself. A continuous stream of ha ha ha ha, ad nauseum, looks like i imagine it would sound - blocky and repetitious.

Finally, I like using the "ha ha's" in writing like a climax of sorts - first, a detailed description which builds the reader's anticipation and introspection to a crescendo, and then the exposive interjections as an almost orgasmic fulfillment of the description.

Aren't you sorry you asked now? LOL
 
If I had to choose only one, the descriptive laughter. I don't mind if a story only "explains" the laughter. But if it's excessively typed out in "HAHAHA"s, capitalized or not, then I'll probably lose interest.

That being said, I prefer if there's a balance of both.
 
It is a pet peeve of mine using HAHAHAHAHA, but using it to break up a sentence or words does work better. I try not to capitalise these days but some of my older work does have it.
 
It totally makes a story for me to see the long lines of Haha - although I couldn't explain why. I think it's just how I remember stories being written back in the day, that I look for that now.
 
I really can’t stand the capital letter laughing stuff. Mainly because nobody ever sounds like that when they’re getting tickled. No one goes HO HA HA HO HO. It just sounds so silly to me. The other thing that I really don’t like is when people add the lines “I’M SO TICKLISH”. Like, really? A super heroine bound to a table and getting tickled tortured is going to say HA HA HO HO I’M SO TICKLISH”? Lol Anyway. Really cool of you to ask for people’s opinion, though! Ultimately, you should write in a way that speaks to you. You’re never going to be able to please everyone.
 
A perennial question.

I definitely prefer the former, and I think I started calling the latter "phoneticized laughter," just to have a term. I've never found spelling out laughter any more effective than trying to convey a character's rate, pitch or inflection through the spelling of their dialogue: sparing touches can hint at those when truly needed, but more than a little has me wondering what I'm looking at.

I'm not saying no one can enjoy it, but I think the difference in taste must align with a more fundamentally different impression of what prose is.
 
I hate the "hahahaha" thing. It puts me off big time. There are so many other ways to include the ticklee's response in the narration that are much more elegant and pleasant to read. And yet there are authors out there who literally write entire paragraphs consisting of HAHAHAHAHAs; I cannot figure out why anyone would enjoy this.

There can be clever ways to write laughter into the dialogue, but 90% of the time it feels out of place, at least for me as a reader.
 
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