How to wow your audience like Victoria Wood

If you’re anything like me you were so, so sad to hear about Victoria Wood’s premature death recently. She was one of those people who should have carried on being funny and sparkling forever. I grew up with her sketches, went to see her live, and loved the way she made me laugh while keeping her performance authentic and unpretentious.

She delivered her jokes with a smile, not a sneer. She forged her own path, being one of the first women to combine singing with comedy. And she was brilliant – just brilliant – with words.

(For those of you outside the UK, Victoria was one of our best-loved comedians and TV writers – you can see more here.)

So what made her writing so funny? Many, many things of course. But one of the main ones was how she was so specific with her descriptions. As authors we can learn a lot from this. For Victoria being specific made us laugh, but for you it might result in your readers feeling touched, understood, clear, impressed, or moved. Wouldn’t that be amazing?

Want some Victoria Wood examples of specific writing? I’m so glad you asked:

Foreplay is like beefburgers – three minutes on each side. (It’s the ‘three minutes’ that makes me laugh).

Life’s not fair, is it? Some of us drink champagne in the fast lane, and some of us eat our sandwiches by the loose chippings on the A597. (Soooo specific)

You know that building in London where all the windows blew out? That wasn’t a bomb, it was fifty-six pre-menstrual women the day the chocolate machine broke down. (Yup, it has to be ‘fifty-six’)

I once found myself in bed with a man who was a real do-it-yourself enthusiast … he ripped off all his clothes and said ‘What would you like me to do?’ I said, ‘Well, really I’d like you to fix my overflow and re-point my brickwork.’ (If you don’t tell a man exactly what you need …)

For Victoria it was never just a biscuit/cookie, it was a macaroon. It was never just a magazine, it was a Woman’s Weekly. It was never just DIY, it was lagging the pipes.

And it was never enough to be general, because by being specific she made her words real. Could you do that?

Being real fosters trust, which leads to people paying you attention, thereby creating influence, which means your book will have a profound effect on your readers. Can you see how this works?

In Victoria’s words, ‘Let’s do it!’