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You can't force funny writing. It helps to look for the absurdities in everyday life, make fun of yourself and, like the best comedians, learn how to set up the punch line.

When we recently polled our Facebook audience of writers, dozens offered tips on how to improve humor-writing skills. Here's their best advice:

Pamela Burger: "Be able to laugh at yourself first."

Mary Catlett: "Read funny things, hear funny things, learn the cadence and rhythm and word usage. Take improvisation classes - (because) every moment you are writing."

Nancy LaFever: "Don't try too hard. When I read humor, it always jumps out at me if someone is trying to be funny. It's difficult to describe, but real, organic humor appears to be effortless. (Even though we KNOW it isn't!)."

Bruce Stambaugh: "When making a joke in my column, I only make fun of myself."

Lisa Crandall: "Don't take life so seriously. There is humor in everything, everyday. (You) just have to be open to seeing through the mundane. Laugh more, even if it is at rather than with the crowd. Just stay real, not mean."

Nettie Reynolds: "Writing funny is in the details. It's those little moments, the ones that Erma captured so well and that we all aspire to."

Sarah Hunt: "Be real. Read everything."

Christine Birney Wans: "Honesty. The more brutally honest, the better."

Barb Best: "Surprise. Delight. Exaggerate. Play. Tease. Tickle."

Barry Parham: "I like Woody Allen's advice: if it bends, it's funny. If it breaks, that's not funny."

Kathy Frederick: "My blog wouldn't exist without a healthy dose of self-deprecation."

Alyson Rennick Herzig: "I write my funnies exactly as I think them. (It's) more authentic, with crazy interwoven."

Kathy Turski: " You should read the kind of humor that you like, the kind you want to write. Soak it in like a sponge - the style, the cadence - and think about what it is that makes you laugh. I'm not saying copy the work, but learn from it. My other advice is to write humor the way one should make a pie crust - with a light, deft touch. Work either one too hard and you end up with something stiff and stodgy like cardboard. Handle it lightly, and you'll have something delightful."

P Shane McAfee: "Sit back and observe. Most of the stuff I write about actually happens. Then I just put my warped perspective on it."

Ruth Hanley: "Be around humorous/witty people and read humor (good humor). I find that it inspires me to 'speak the language.'"

Georgia Vallejo: "Don't force it."

Susan Bloch Leach: "If you are not funny, leave it to the funny people. Comedy writers need the work. Bad humor just makes us cringe."

Meredith Bland: " If it makes YOU laugh, it will make other people laugh. Try to put it into words in a way that captures what you found funny. If you read it back and you smile or giggle, you've done it."

Abbie Gale: "Practice finding the humor in everyday. This is why there aren't successful 18-year-olds. They haven't had enough "everydays" to be funny. You have to live to have the experiences, the perspective."

Vikki Claflin: " Write about what makes you laugh. Have fun doing it. And a little personal humiliation never hurts."

Paige Kellerman: "It has to make me laugh first. If it doesn't, I scrap it."

Amy A. Mullis: "When something happens to me, I think, 'If I were going to tell this to people, how would I embellish or twist it to make them laugh?' The light globe fell off the fan in the kitchen narrowly missing me last night. My story will be, 'The kitchen is trying to save the world by stopping me from cooking.'"

Lisa Kanarek: "Don't try to be funny. That never works. What you write should feel natural and not forced."

Mike McHugh: "Don't always accept the first thing that comes to mind when trying to come up with something humorous. Sometimes lightning will strike, but more often, I have to spend a few minutes thinking through possible punch lines to come up with something good."

Terri Lehr Spilman: "Humor is so subjective. Naturally funny people have a certain rhythm, intelligence and point of view that can't be taught. They can only be studied."

Carol Band: "It's not a funny situation - it's how you view life, everyday situations. It's a distinct voice, a fresh personality, a perspective that brings people together in the understanding that they are not alone in this absurdity that is life."

Linda Lohman: "I was once attacked on the street by another woman. In looking at the stud in the indentation of her neck I thought to myself, 'Doesn't she know that's dangerous? Someone would only have to push it in, just a little...' Unfortunately, I didn't think of this until the next day. That NIGHT I was thinking of two Margaritas. I think perspective and exaggeration can make things more light-hearted."

Jane R. LeBlanc: "Rhythm and timing are the keys to humor. Watch comedians on stage. Notice their rhythm and timing, and make an effort to find that in your writing. Your writing can be much funnier if what you say is set up properly."

Lisa Romeo: "Read the great humor writers and STUDY what they do. Take a comedy class (stand up, sitcom writing, anything). Pay close attention to rhythm, timing, the pause between phrases. It has to sing. The 'Rule of Threes' is a simple, time-tested technique. Always be the one who gets the bum rap in your humor pieces. A little self-deprecation goes a long way."

Beth Hickman: "Don't try to be funny. Be subtle. Let the readers 'get it' on their own."

Lindsay LaVine: "Find the funny in real life - be observant, study pop culture. The funniest stuff, I find, you can't make up."

Jerry Zezima: "Bang your head against a wall three times. If this gives you a funny idea, write about it. If it gives you a headache, write about that. Take two aspirin and go to bed. Don't write anything else for a couple of days."

Alexandra Rosas: "Specific visualizations do wonders. 'She had a screechy voice' is okay, but 'she had a voice that children and dogs love' even better.

Andrea Monroe: "No - she had a voice that children and dogs RAN from is funnier."

Tara LaVelle: "She had a voice that only dogs and children could hear."

Marcia Fine: "Work on the punch line. That final wind-up to the story matters."

Carol Merrifield: "Write it just like you'd say it, awkward silent moments included."

Charlotte Johnson Jones: "The best stories are the ones that made me the angriest or craziest when they happened, as in 'You won't bu-leeve what your mother-in-law did today.' Big emotions can make for big laughs."