This is something I do and I was wondering if I’m the only one.
Do you ever include inside jokes in your stories? Things that make sense in the context of the story but also reference something in real life, so it’s something that readers can still enjoy when they’re not in on it but will make your friends/family say, “[name_m]Ah[/name_m], I see what you did there!”
One that I can think of off the top of my head is a joke between my parents that has trickled down to us kids. Basically, my dad doesn’t know the definition of the word “obsequious” and will sometimes use it in an incorrect way so that my mom or I (who do know what it means) can tell him that he’s using it incorrectly.
I referenced that joke in this scene, where my MC needs to draw blood, and is trying to convince her friend to do it for her:
“What if I did something really annoying?”
He shook his head. “It just feels wrong.”
“[name_m]How[/name_m] about I misuse long words? You hate that.”
“I wouldn’t stab someone for it though.”
“That’s very obsequious of you to say.”
I can’t be the only one who does this, right? Have you included an inside joke/reference in your project? I want to hear them!
I do things like this all the time! I’m a teenager, and don’t write fanfic (yet…), so my main audience is my close friends. Many of our references are done in character names. We usually do this with middles so it’s not too obvious.
I don’t think I’ve done inside jokes, but references.
Example: In one of the drafts for my 2066 project, the prologue had MC’s grandfather walk past a wall of family photos and think about them (exactly the kind of irrelevant fluff that makes people dislike prologues) and one of them was taken in [name_u]Montana[/name_u] in [name_f]April[/name_f] 2063, the time and place First Contact happens in [name_f]Star[/name_f] Trek canon. It’s probably not too bad that this scene has been cut…
Oh, I remember one now. In one of my fanfics, there was this out-of-control math class that was sticking pencils into the ceiling, playing music out loud while the teacher was talking, and having screaming conversations with kids across the room. Funnily enough… this math class was an almost perfect replica of my sixth grade math class. If my friends were to read this fanfic (and I seriously hope they don’t, it was one of my first ones and very poorly-written), they would most definitely find this math class very familiar.
There’s not much I can think of off the top of my head, but I will directly quote people in my life. I can’t think of any instances right now, but I’ll get back later.
