I named one of my steampowered robots "Mr. Darcy"
after a certain Jane Austen character...lol :)
Overall, jokes are vary rare in my work as they can take away from the tone of Dark Realism. But I have a thing for anti-jokes, or jokes that serve at the expense of the favorite character.
I quite enjoy in-jokes in stories; Stephen King is a great one for 'jokes' about shared-universe characters. I think it adds a little bit to the work. My own in-joke is I often include two characters playing the roles of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern in my stories. In one story I even named them Rosencrantz and Guilder (which, now that I think about it, is actually a Princess Bride reference).
So, in-jokes: I am in favor.
I'm in favor of it, so long as missing the joke won't make the story harder to enjoy for the reader. I have a few references to A Scanner Darkly in the novel project I'm working on, and it doesn't *mean* anything, but if people have read it, they'll probably get a little kick out of how it works with the story line.
A Scanner Darkly, I still want to read that.^^ Movie was great.
Reading Philip K. Dick is always a trip. Which makes sense, in a way.
Sarah-- you MUST read it. The film changes a couple things, most notably the ending, which change the implications of the story. I love the movie, too, but the book is one of my favorites. Very powerful.
I like those sorts of references in books. If I get it, it makes me endlessly happy. If I don't, then it doesn't hurt.
Usually no one gets my in jokes. And that's okay.
Several of my writing peers like to use each other's names as fictional characters. And the way those play either to or against type is an endless source of amusement for those name-checked, while taking nothing away from oblivious readers. Nik Korpon and Richard Thomas are two guys I speficially remember doing this, and I'm especially honored to have served as an avatar in Craig Wallwork's infamous story, "Revenge of the Zombie Pussy Eaters."
I know I've inserted a number of in-jokes into my own writing, but I'll be damned if I can think of one off the top of my head. I'll often use descriptions of real places in fictional ones, and if you've been there or recognize some of the described decor/atmosphere, that's a wink of sorts. As mentioned above, though, if its ambiguity pulls the reader out of the story for even a moment, it gets cut.
"I'll often use descriptions of real places in fictional ones, and if you've been there or recognize some of the described decor/atmosphere, that's a wink of sorts."
I do this too. Rewriting OOT for Perfect Edge and there's a lot of Power & Light references in there now.
Not my bag. When other people do it I often sort of get the reference, but not really, so it sort of makes me feel like a jerk because that is super distracting.
Is there a difference between a "hat-tip" and an "in-joke"?
You gotta find some way to make writing fun.
