1. Humor brightens the written word. That's no surprise. The good news is that the ability to create humor is a learned skill. There are ways of thinking and there are certain writing structures that make the funny lines resonate with your readers.

2. A great place to start is by focusing your humor radar and learning to think funny. Expose yourself to humor books, tapes, movies. Visit toy stores. Hang around funny friends.

3. Keep a journal of funny things that happen to you. Your best source of humor is your personal stories. Stories are the best way to touch your readers and the easiest way to create humor.

4. When creating humor for a written piece, keep in mind that coming up with a funny line is a numbers game. If you want two funny lines for a piece, write 20 lines. Or maybe 40. Just when you think you've burned out on funny ideas, you'll write your best line.

5. At the core of nearly every joke (especially true for written jokes which do not have the physical delivery factor that enhances spoken humor) is a relationship between two things or ideas. The relationship usually connects two previously unrelated items. For example, Gary Larson cartoons often relate animals with human characteristics. In one cartoon, all the patrons in a restaurant are snakes. One of the snakes at the table in the background is twisted and in an unusual position. Two snakes at a table in the foreground and talking about the unusual body language of the snake at the other table.