Writing Traumedy

The first writing session

May 29, 2025

To paraphrase Joan Rivers: Your own suffering has the potential to be very funny. And to poorly paraphrase a lot of writers: Art is the opportunity to turn your worst moments into the funniest.

“When you laugh, the whole world laughs with you. But when you cry, you cry alone,” my mom told me every day when I was in middle school.

To tell any story—especially dark ones—joking is a way in. It’s a way into the writing, and it’s the way to get the whole world to laugh with you. Because people listen to a joke when they ignore a sob story or a rant, so if you can’t say something straight (if it’s too preachy, saccharine, or harrowing), then say it slant, to paraphrase Emily Dickinson. This way, you trick people into paying attention to you and even into understanding you.

And sometimes, joking about tragedy is the only way we can talk or write about it.

Furthermore, life is an absurd farce, which jokes capture best.

If you must write about your special little trauma—to process it; to get it out of your system and exorcise it; to do something with it—write “traumedy” with me and your future friends this Sunday, June 1st, 4-5:30pm ET.

Our ultimate goal will be to make readers laugh while PUNCHING THEM IN THE HEART. Happy endings will be burned.

Therapy is the best therapy, but writing and joking are second-best therapies, and we’ll do all three on Sunday.

This is the first of monthly 90-minute guided writing experiences for paying subscribers (to support my eating habit), who will receive the Zoom link via email the day before each session.