Orlando Word Lab

This is a writing workshop that meets on the 4th Wednesday of every month at the Winter Park Library. We focus on learning a new technique or method each month. A guest speaker will share a sample of their work and then give a writing prompt for everyone to follow.

We'll all write for 30 minutes, and then share our work with others, and receive helpful suggestions about what to improve. Bring your laptops, tablets, a notebook and pen, and a willingness to learn.

This month, award-winning humorist Erik Deckers will share his New Humor Writing Framework with us. He will teach you how to apply different humor theories and techniques to your work, finding humor in almost every situation. You'll learn how to surprise your audience and to get laughs using different techniques and situations.

These are techniques you can use in fiction and nonfiction, whether you write books, poetry, or for TV and radio. We'll look at the techniques and learn how to mine each of them for humorous effect.

Erik Deckers has been a newspaper humor columnist for nearly 30 years, a screenwriter and playwright, and a novelist. He was the Spring 2016 writer-in-residence at the Jack Kerouac Project and is now their president. He is also the "adult-in-charge" of the Writers of Central Florida.