So, I am planning to write a ghost story. I am not that good at writing funny things so I thought the YWSers can help me with this. Basically, there would be a character who will start behaving very funny without a reason. Please give me some tips on how to develop the character?
I'm not sure if you mean funny or weird, but since it's a ghost story you want to write, I'll assume the latter.
It is important that before this change takes place, you portray the character through descriptions or dialogue of his friends / other characters so that the reader gets a good insight into the person. It helps to include some small examples that help to show that the character is not brave, rarely speaks or has a certain way of doing things, for example. Once you've established that, you can start to portray the character differently so that the reader realises; "Oh, that's strange for him." Maybe he's not so scared anymore, talks a lot more, or knows about things he shouldn't. (I am of course very much assuming here that the character is obsessed).
But if it goes more in the direction of funny, where the character makes jokes or something, it's important that you don't break the plot with that. It's very important that it doesn't seem contrived or fake, but situational. Things can be funny even without dialogue. You can make a character do something funny that is actually embarrassing or not planned so that it appears funny in the plot. In dialogue, for example, I would work more with puns or sarcastic comments - but that depends on the character you want to create.
In a story, I would try to write the plot first and only then, when you have the framework ready, start thinking about where you can put such moments. I find that while you're writing, it can happen that you think you're already further along, and then the humorous moments are all one after the other. I hope that helps.
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