ANDRE BEGIN

It was during one of the first meetings with my humour writers’ group when one of our team leads addressed the group, “Hello Humourists!”

My reaction was “Humourist… Who me?”

I think my reluctance to accept the title, and to articulate it assertively and confidently comes from two places: imposter syndrome and a fear of conflict.

For the imposter syndrome part, there was no way I would ever consider myself on par with the great humour writers of our time such as Erma Bombeck, David Sedaris, Chelsea Handler and Dave Barry, among so many other greats.

Maybe there’s something about the term humourist itself that intimidates me, especially where the lines blur a little. With several comedic actors and stand-up comedians also wearing the hat of humourist, I wonder if that factor lends itself to an incorrect but wider interpretation of what a humourist does.

Either way, to be able to tell a funny story, or to tell a story in a funny way in a written format, I believed I had a knack for that.

“Knack”… that word really oozes confidence, doesn’t it?

I reminded myself that I signed up for the humor writers’ group enthusiastically and while completely sober. This was no accident. But my subconscious still didn’t get the hint or the memo.

Where the fear of conflict comes in, I think we can all agree that humour and comedy are subjective and entirely in the eye of the beholder. What I think is funny might not be to someone else and vice versa. Our perception of humour is based on our own unique points of reference, perspectives and influences throughout our lives.

In calling myself a humourist, I didn’t want to get into an argument with someone over whether something I wrote was funny (or not). That being the case, I maintained an arm’s length relationship with the title.

More than that, to label my work as “humour” or “#funnystory” generates a sense of discomfort. I just didn’t want to look like THAT GUY who says, “Hey, look at me! I’m funny!”

And there is always the fear that if a reader doesn’t chuckle within the first few paragraphs or even sees enough potential for an upcoming punchline to stick with the story, they’re outta there. Yeah, no pressure.

But it was only recently when I was approaching the 10-year mark and after completing 500 blog posts that I felt like I was in front of a huge fork in the road.

I had hit a plateau in daily page views that was approaching three years in duration. The big question: how do I get more eyeballs on my content?

I started researching search engine optimization strategies, looking for advice on tools I hadn’t fully leveraged to this point. Along the way, I made a laundry list of potential improvements.

Articles on the theme of “niche” kept coming up, as well as knowing your audience and knowing what they want to read.

You would think that after 500 articles, my niche would’ve been self-evident, but to me it wasn’t. In taking the advice “write for yourself” I wrote on a variety of topics and maybe because I was so close to the material, I had a hard time seeing the common denominator.

Again, I sometimes wonder if my subconscious is a little slow on the uptake. It was to the point that I considered taking a break from the blog to regroup and come back with a fresh pair of eyes.

One morning, I woke up with the idea to check out other blogging templates on WordPress. Maybe another template would freshen things up and offer more opportunities for readers to find articles that might interest them.

Even though the blogging template I was using had served me well for many years, I had a seedling of an idea: something more along the lines of a digital magazine format.

Once I found the template that matched this vision perfectly, I joyfully got to work on the conversion to the new look and feel. My energy and interest in my blog had returned in a big way.

It was only when I was tidying up the way I had categorized each blog post that the answer to the niche question finally revealed itself: Out of over 500 blog posts, more than 300 were tagged as humour.

Oh my God… Humour was my niche!

What an epiphany!

What a revelation!

What took me so long?

The strange part is that I’ve been writing humorous blog posts from the very beginning, yet had a very difficult time accepting the title of humourist. I just did not see myself worthy.

I realized that if I didn’t get out of that mindset and to dig deeply for the confidence to assert myself, my blog might just look like a bunch of random articles even though humour IS the common denominator to more than half of them.

That being the case, readers will start seeing the words humour and humourist popping up here and there, and hopefully, I will be doing so without hesitating before clicking “Publish”.

And by actually saying “humour” out loud and believing it myself, I can truly enjoy the freedom of writing stories not only for myself but for anyone who can appreciate the relatable experiences I observe and that I describe, highlighting their humourous slant.

By continuing down this road, I hope my subconscious will eventually catch up and to wholeheartedly believe it too.

On a personal note, I’d like to thank the leaders and the members of my humour writers’ group who made me feel accepted and that I belonged, which paved the way for me to finally come out as a humourist! Heartfelt thanks to you all!

Did you enjoy this post? If you did, your likes and shares are most appreciated.
If you haven’t already, please check out the rest of my blog at andrebegin.blog. From there, you can click on the “Follow” button to receive future posts directly in your inbox.
Sincere thanks for reading!
Have a great day,
André