Humor in the plot

A plot - even a serious one - cannot remain sad all the time. That would lead to monotony and, ultimately, to audience fatigue. Even a sad film should contain some cheerful elements, if only for contrast. Staying in one mood throughout the entire script makes the structure too simple.

If a film is meant to be sad overall - for example, we want to show someone who has been mistreated - we can still show happy moments at the beginning of the story. After all, almost nothing in life is entirely black or white. We might want to portray this person as one of us, making what happens later feel like something that could happen to any of us.

Moving away from sad films, we must say that in most ordinary films, humor is something that enlivens, amuses, and makes the film more interesting. Sometimes, a small joke arising naturally from a situation or a funny line from one of the characters can do wonders for the screenplay.

Humor can be built consciously. The best jokes arise directly from the situations that appear in the story. It's not worth adding anything that doesn't fit the action just because it's funny. Nothing by force!

The Story Designer program has a database with parameters and suggestions that can help generate jokes for each scene.