I can say with complete sincerity that I enjoy stories in all styles and genres and tones.  As long as it's well written and engaging I can get on board with pretty much anything.

In my own writing I have a tendency to drift towards some pretty goofy humor.  I do enjoy trying to branch out to some darker areas once in a while, but humor is kind of my comfort zone.  I think I remember one moment in particular that really sort of steered me in that direction.

For as long as I can remember I always enjoyed making up stories, although I can't say some of my earliest efforts as a kid had all that much of a distinctive voice or anything.  But they were an important stepping stone on the way and I wouldn't really expect an 8 year old to deliver an insightful commentary on the modern human condition anyway.  It was more about letting my imagination run wild and slowly learning how to harness it.

In elementary school I remember we'd occasionally have an assignment to write a one page story or something and I'm pretty sure I'd bounce around all over the place, but I do recall it being especially gratifying when you managed to make the whole class laugh with something you wrote.  

I was pretty excited around 7th or 8th grade when creative writing became a regular component of the English classes I was taking.  I was still bouncing around a bit in search of my voice, so to speak, and I think I was starting to narrow in a little more on humorous stuff.  When I really went for it, I seemed to be able to make the class laugh fairly consistently.  But I wasn't totally sold on it yet.

I remember this one particular activity we would do sometimes where the teacher would put us into groups of four and we would each start writing a story.  After a few minutes or so we would stop, pass our story to the next person in the group and they would continue it while you continued on a new story you received.  This would continue until all four members of the group had contributed to each story.  

This was usually a pretty fun activity, but I remember this one time I decided to start my story off on a more serious note for some reason. I don't recall exactly what it was about or where I was personally intending to go with it, but it wasn't really my problem because I was handing the story off to my other group members anyway and they could figure it out.  At the end of the activity the group as a whole was supposed to pick one of the four stories we had written to read aloud to the class.  For some reason the group chose the story I had started.

So I ended up reading it aloud in front of the class and it didn't go over well at all.  The class, like, seriously hated this story.  They made a big deal out of how boring it was and somehow I ended up taking the blame for it, even though I only wrote the first quarter of the thing.  Probably because I was the one that read it and also because I originated it my group members threw me under the bus and pinned the blame on me.  I remember some kids coming up to me after class to tell me how boring my story was as if it was only mine.  

I really didn't like that reaction and I vowed to myself that none of my future stories were going to be dismissed as boring.  I remembered the much more positive reaction I got when people laughed, so I began to lean into that.  I think my confidence was a bit shook at first because I remember writing several stories that were just blatant rip offs of funny comic book stories I'd read or computer games I'd played.  Being influenced is okay, but this was more or less plagiarism, and I eventually realized I didn't want to do that.  

But I think there's even some value in completely ripping off a good story, especially when you're still finding your voice and style.   In doing so you can learn some things about how a good story is put together or how the pacing of humor works in the case of comedy.  If you can internalize those lessons and turn them towards your own work, it might ultimately help you be a better writer.  I say if you're a beginner, go ahead and rip stuff off shamelessly.  Just maybe don't try to publish it and pass it off as your own.

But anyway, I think that was a really big turning point that steered me into humor.  People like to laugh and if you can make it happen, you tend to get a pretty good response.  I remember the story that cemented for me that I might actually have some talent in this realm, but that's something I can talk about another time.  Maybe tomorrow if I feel like it.