I recently came across the following list on Amazon:  “100 Science Fiction and Fantasy Books to Read in a Lifetime.”

As an aspiring fantasy writer, I decided to spend the next few years reading every book on this list and record the lessons I learned from each volume on how to be a great writer.

In all seriousness, where else would I begin? This novel is one of the most beloved books of all time.

PLOT (From goodreads.com, abbreviated): Seconds before the Earth is demolished to make way for a galactic freeway, Arthur Dent is plucked off the planet by his friend Ford Prefect, a researcher for the revised edition of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy who, for the last fifteen years, has been posing as an out-of-work actor.

Together this dynamic pair begin a journey through space aided by quotes from The Hitchhiker’s Guide (“A towel is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have”) and a galaxy-full of fellow travelers…

WHAT I LEARNED: The most obvious lesson an author might learn from one of the funniest books ever written is how weave humor into a story. Of course, it could be argued that one can’t learn how to be funny, you’ve either “got it” or you don’t. However, a writer can certainly improve any skill by reading the works of others.

One major lesson to take away from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is juxtaposition.

I forgot what a philosophical book this is. If you stripped away all the funny moments you are left with a fairly bleak story. The earth is destroyed for no reason, all that is remembered of our planet is the two-word description “Mostly Harmless” and the galaxy is an apathetic bureaucracy lacking any real meaning. Without its humor, Hitchhikers could have easily been a script for Ingmar Bergman’s answer to Star Wars.

However, Douglas Adams doesn’t deliver this bleak philosophy like a nihilistic undergrad. Rather than bemoaning the pointlessness of life, he makes fun of it.

Had Hitchhikers been pure darkness it would have become a nearly forgotten work of depressing art. Had it been nothing but madcap silliness it would have been forgotten for its lack of significance.  But Adams manages to balance the philosophy and humor so they complement one another, creating a novel that would be depressing if we weren’t so busy laughing.

In short, if the story you’re writing is dark, don’t forget to add some funny moments. First of all, we’ll get some comic relief but more importantly, there are some very bleak messages you can deliver with humor. Your story doesn’t have to include two-headed ex-hippies or depressed robots but some light moments here and there can go a long way.

Likewise, if your work tends to be funnier, ask yourself, what important messages can I be delivering with my humor. Such a literary balancing act is tricky but it’ll make your story more memorable.

FAVORITE QUOTE: The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy is filled with iconic lines and jokes (“Always bring a towel” … “Mostly Harmless” … “42”) However there is one scene that doesn’t just sum up the book’s humor, it captures the work’s outlook .

It takes place after two nuclear missiles are incomprehensibly turned into a Sperm whale and a bowel of petunias falling through the atmosphere. We are then given a “complete record” of the whale’s thoughts from the moment it was created to the moment it crashes against the surface of an alien planet.

“And hey, what about this whistling roaring sound going past what I’m suddenly going to call my head? Perhaps I can call that…wind! Is that a good name? It’ll do… perhaps I can find a better name for it later when I’ve found out what it’s for. It must be something very important because there certainly seems to be a hell of a lot of it. Hey! What’s this thing? This… let’s call it a tail – yeah, tail. Hey! I can really thrash it about pretty good, can’t I? Wow! Wow! That feels great! Doesn’t seem to achieve very much but I’ll probably find out what it’s for later on. Now have I built up any coherent picture of things yet?

“No.  

“Never mind, hey, this is really exciting, so much to find out about, so much to look forward to, I’m quite dizzy with anticipation…

“Or is it the wind?

“There really is a lot of that now, isn’t there?

“And wow! Hey! What’s this thing suddenly coming toward me very fast? Very, very fast. So big and flat and round, it needs a big wide-sounding name like…ow…ount…round…ground! That’s it! That’s a good name – ground!

“I wonder if it will be friends with me?

“And the rest, after a sudden wet thud, was silence.

“Curiously enough, the only thing that went through the mind of the bowl of petunias as it fell was Oh no, not again. Many people have speculated that if we knew exactly why the bowl of petunias had thought that we would know a lot more about the nature of the Universe than we do now.”