Melissa Yi, NAIWE’s Medical Crime Expert

We wanted to get to know Melissa Yi (NAIWE’s Medical Crime Expert) better, so last month we sat down with her. Here are some thoughts she shared with us.

Your protagonist, Dr. Hope Sze, routinely faces horrific crimes—from bioterrorism to serial killers—yet she frequently lets fly a terrible pun or a sarcastic observation. How do you strike a balance between maintaining high stakes and dropping in comedic relief?

If you’re reading this, you’re probably a super reader. You’ve absorbed enough books, and maybe watched enough movies, that you now have an intuitive grasp of when you can crack a joke and when you need to push adrenaline to the limit. It helps to have a beta reader or ten, so you can sift through their reactions and figure out when you’ve gone too far. You’ll notice stand up comedians do the same thing, trying out new material live, checking how it lands. Keep learning, keep testing, and above all, have fun.

 

Many reviewers and peers comment on how fast-paced and incisive your writing is. Do you find that a comedic voice naturally speeds up the pacing of a thriller?

Humor is that spoonful of sugar that makes everything more palatable. Pages whirl by faster if you not only care about Hope and her friends, and sweat over how she’s going to get away from the latest killer, but also if you giggle over some of the phrasing. I know that when I’m deep in a book, I’m always highlighting jokes that make me want to re-read. Right now, I’m listening to Mhairi McFarlane, who is so witty that I’ll come back to her again and again. And I don’t even understand all of her Scottish jokes!

 

Humor is highly subjective. When you are writing a witty line or a funny interaction between characters, how do you test if it hits the mark? Do you read it aloud or lean on early beta readers?

All of the above! Reading aloud is a super way to catch mistakes. I love to have people read it and chortle, or tell me if they don’t understand or crossed the line. I never want to hurt feelings unnecessarily, and it’s often not worth offending people. But sometimes, you also need to go with your gut and say, I am the Grand Poobah, and I have the final say on this matter. In the end, you gotta be you. You could spend your whole life not offending people, wearing a mask, and is that really what you want to do with your one precious life? I say, choose wisely. Laugh often.

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Writing can transform a book into a bestseller. It eases your way through life and makes you more resilient when things invariably/incessantly go south. Or to paraphrase Mary Pettibone Poole, “She who laughs, lasts.” Join Melissa Yi, medical crime and award-winning author, for a humor workshop brimming with writing tips, samples, and hands-on exercises.

You can join in this conversation on September 29 at 2:00 pm eastern, when NAIWE will host a discussion on adding humor to your writing, no matter the genre. The cost for NAIWE members is only $10! Nonmembers can join for $30. Register today!

 

Melissa Yi could slice your throat and sew it back up again. Legally. Because she’s an emergency doctor. This inspires her heroine, Dr. Hope Sze, to solve everything from ingrown toenails to full-blown murder. In the thriller Killing Me Slothly, Hope confronts a cult that worships the alien god, Cthulhu–and that may overtake Hope’s own mind. Melissa writes multiple genres, including romance (hockey! Pride and Prejudice!) and memoir (The Most Unfeeling Doctor in the World).