Why the Best Stories Make Us Laugh and Cry

One of the questions I’m occasionally asked is whether I consider myself a comedy writer or a drama writer.

The honest answer is neither.

Or perhaps both.

The stories that have always interested me most are the ones that recognise life rarely stays in a single lane for very long. Some of the funniest moments happen during difficult times, and some of the most emotional moments arrive completely unannounced in the middle of an ordinary day.

Life rarely separates the funny from the painful quite as neatly as we'd like.

I've sat through funerals where people laughed until they cried. I've attended weddings where family tensions simmered beneath every speech. I've witnessed moments of genuine heartbreak interrupted by something so absurd that everyone in the room burst out laughing.

As a writer, I find those moments fascinating.

When I was writing Certified, I became increasingly aware that humour and emotion weren't opposites. In many ways, they depended on each other. A funny scene often became funnier when the audience cared about the people involved. Likewise, an emotional moment often carried greater impact if the characters felt real, flawed and capable of making us laugh.

The same has been true while writing Escorted.

Many of the characters use humour as a defence mechanism. They joke when they're uncomfortable. They tease when they're afraid. They avoid difficult conversations by talking about almost anything else. In other words, they behave very much like real people.

What I've learned is that audiences are often willing to follow a story into darker emotional territory if you've first given them a reason to enjoy spending time with the characters.

Humour creates connection.

Heart creates meaning.

The challenge is knowing when to use each.

Too much humour and the emotional moments lose their weight. Too much drama and the story can become exhausting. Finding the balance is rarely straightforward. It often takes multiple drafts and a willingness to remove jokes I personally enjoyed if they undermine a more important moment.

Some of my favourite scenes to write are those where both elements exist together. A character says something funny without intending to. Someone tries to hide genuine emotion behind a joke. Two people laugh while discussing something neither of them really wants to confront.

Those moments feel truthful to me.

Perhaps that's why I keep returning to them.

Because life itself rarely chooses between comedy and drama.

More often than not, it gives us both at exactly the same time.