[vrabinec]

Both are precious, but if you had to choose just one.

 

[jabeard]

Cry, I suppose, if only because it's hard for me to consistent produce stuff that's amusing to other people.

 

[Jan Strnad]

I'd go for "laugh," but it's too hard and I'm too lazy. I really have to tip my hat to anyone who writes good, consistently funny work.

It's actually easier to do both. You get desensitized to either one if it's relentless, like riding a roller coaster that only goes down and never up and around and sideways and upside down.

 

[Becca Mills]

Laugh. Or at least smile. There's already a lot of crying in real life.

 

[Kay Bratt]

Since I have no chance of making anyone laugh..I usually settle for making them cry. (in a good way)

 

[Orlando Winters]

I consider myself a humorist.

So obviously, cry.

 

[Becca Mills]

I consider myself a humorist.

So obviously, cry.

LOL! Great first post, Orlando. Welcome to KB.

 

[Avis Black]

Laugh.  I see no important reason to make people cry.  Life is going to do that to them, anyway.

 

[Zelah Meyer]

Laugh, definitely!

(P.S. Hello Orlando & welcome to the boards.)

 

[Catana]

Neither. I don't write to evoke casual emotions.

 

[Orlando Winters]

Thank you, and greetings! Reddit's r/writing brought me here.

 

[Caddy]

Cry.  I want to do both, but crying means something deeply resonated with them. If I can get someone that deeply connected to my characters, that means the world to me. Crying is not always sad, either.  It is cleansing and sometimes done in relief. There are tears of joy and because something is so unexpectedly kind or beautiful. Besides, if you get someone to laugh hard enough, they usually cry. I write drama. Life is both immensely amusing and deeply heartbreaking.

 

[Amanda Brice]

Laugh. Or at least smile. There's already a lot of crying in real life.

This. It's why I read funny books. I want the escapism.

And it's why I write humorous mysteries...it's what I love to read. (At least I think/hope I write humorous books. My reviews say I do, at least.)

So if people are crying while reading my books, then I did something wrong. Unless they're laughing so hard it makes tears come to their eyes, in which case I did something right!

 

[Claudia King]

Cry, but only once or twice, and preferably with a smile on their lips at the end.

 

[S.A. Mulraney]

I'd rather have them think. Oh, wait...that wasn't an option.

I try and intersperse some humor into whatever I write.

 

[Bud Bane]

I "try" to write fun adventure tales (though they get classified as Horror, Westerns, SciFi and etc.), because they're what I've always enjoyed reading as an escape from reality. To that end, I feel reality has enough tears already and laughter is too sparse for most people, so I "try" to go for chuckles and laughs whenever possible without forcing anything that will disrupt the story.

 

[JRTomlin]

Oh, cry. Definitely.

 

[Tony Rabig]

Cry -- no contest.  Which is a bit weird.  I've been told I can be fairly funny in conversation, but when I sit down to write most of the funny gets shoved into a corner.  The writers I really envy are the ones who can do both, and often in the same story; among these are Theodore Sturgeon, William Goldman, Harlan Ellison, and Roger Zelazny.

 

[Jan Hurst-Nicholson]

I love to make people laugh, and it's especially rewarding making children laugh. Not all my books are humorous, but these are the ones I most enjoy writing  . Laughter is the one emotion that's almost impossible to fake (unless you're an actor  ) so when you read out your manuscript at a writers' workshop you definitely know if it's working if people laugh (or not) 

 

[Caddy]

Cry -- no contest. Which is a bit weird. I've been told I can be fairly funny in conversation, but when I sit down to write most of the funny gets shoved into a corner. The writers I really envy are the ones who can do both, and often in the same story; among these are Theodore Sturgeon, William Goldman, Harlan Ellison, and Roger Zelazny.

I hear you, Tony. I have a handful of friends/relatives who beg me to write a funny book because they have said I have made them laugh so hard they cried when we are telling experiences in person. Yet, that doesn't motivate me. Sure, I want to do both, but I want to deeply move people and make them think, push their boundaries.