Crazy Kiwi
Have the humour come from the characters themselves in story. Have at least one character who's up-beat and makes jokes, quips or cracks wise, perhaps a couple of them who can play off each other with the humorous banter.
Watch damned near any action movie and you'll see people dealing with the situation with humour - it's Truth in Television as most people who deal with unpleasant shit all the time tend to cope using humour.
You don't have to have contrived funny things (like prat falls and slipping on banana skins) happening to lighten the mood, just characters who're prepared to say something funny to lighten the mood if they feel that the conversation's just got too damned depressing or maudlin or can see humour in the absurd mess they've got themselves into.
If you write something that looks to you like it clashes, have one of the others lampshade it with a Dude, Not Funny! reaction or otherwise call them on it.
edited 1st May '18 12:45:16 PM by Wolf1066
I like to make some fun adventure stories, but I still want to raise the stakes and develop my characters just to have their quiet moments, or even show off how threatening and scary a villain can be. On the flip side, When I make a story that is somewhat darker in tone, there's this feeling that I don't want to put in any comic relief or it'll feel out of place. So what can I do to have light-hearted moments in more serious stories or vice versa without the tones feel like they clash with each other?
edited 1st May '18 11:17:15 AM by DokemonStudios