I came up with two, very wordy titles and one succinct one. All from the hotel industry where I used to work, because when you mash up a variety of people, antics naturally happen!
1. How you can just tell what the hotel guest will steal while they're at your resort...at check-in.
2. Lost & Found Items on the Monday after a sold-out weekend at your resort where the convention guests were from a religious association, a government meeting and a sex addicts retreat.
Hotel industry is a great topic to mine. Lots of comedy there.
I like 3 the most because it's clear and succinct and funny.
1 promising too but I'd see if you can trim it to be more concise.
2 is a nice brainstorm but overly complicated in current form. I think this one is a case where you have a bunch of extra details in the headline that could be funny details in the piece itself but don't need to be in the headline. As an exercise you could try to reduce this headline to it's simplest form. What's the one (and only one) most funny thing about the headline? Just keep that.
So excited this class is in my inbox! What I loved about the included stories is how their specificity makes them instantly relatable, even if the reader isn't "in the know". (The 4% jazz one had me cackling)
To make a long family drama short, we uh, gained *15* animals overnight and sort of became a homestead last week (not by choice!). So I narrowed this to animal themes and just brainstormed titles. Here are 5 that I feel like I can nail down a voice for:
- I’m Goat, Your New Goat (and If All Goes According to Plan, the Next Anti-Christ)! AMA!
- FAQ Regarding Vigilante Justice within Our Chicken Community
- What to Know about the Black Rabbit Your Daughter Brought into Your Home and Named ‘Nightmare’
- FAQ Regarding Our Cockapoo’s Recent Demotion from Genetically Abominable Lapdog to Lassie-Era Farm Dog
- Our Farm Return Policy on Telepathic Chickens: FAQ
These were super fun pitches. My fave pitches as written were
"FAQ Regarding Vigilante Justice..." I'd make a v. minor tweak by slightly specifying what kind of chicken community b/c the phrase "chicken community" is not nec. obvious in meaning. So you could say "Urban Chick Community" or "Chicken Farm" or some other well known-phrase.
and "FAQ About the Black Rabbit Your Daughter Brought Home and Named ‘Nightmare’"
(slightly simplified title)
The goat one was fun but a tad overcomplicated and you could simplify it: "I'm Your New Goat! AMA!"
(the part about "I'm the next anti-christ" you could communicate in the piece itself. Sticking it in the title felt just a tad extra to me)
Traumatic memories from my childhood that my family laughs about now:
1. When Mom fell into my sister's drum set carrying food down the steps on the fourth of July and the high hat punctured her butt cheek
2. When Blackjack our black lab shat on the shag carpet and Dad threated the beat the hell out of him so my brother picked up the turd with his bare hands and threw it out the sliding glass door
3. When my brother wanted his own room so badly he lived in the hot water heater closet for a few months
4. When my nana got lost on our vacation to Virginia Beach and no one went to go look for her and she turned up a few hours later with a bad sunburn
5. When my brother and sister locked my mom in the basement when they were 4 and 5 years old and they only let her out after she bribed them with cookies
6. When Blackjack escaped from the kennel when we were on vacation and no one knew where he was except the neighbor whose dog later had puppies
7. When our car broke down on the highway and my brother’s rich friend drove by and used his car phone to call a tow truck instead of just driving us home
Hi Patricia! For me 3 and 7 seem like they have great potential, especially if for 3 you give your narrator a strong voice/sense of justice or injustice.
The car phone is such an enigma now, something my kids wouldn't even be able to fathom! For 7 you can use the memory as a base and maybe make it a list like Alex suggests. "Reasons My Rich Friend Can't Give Me a Ride to the Airport" or something like that. Good luck!!
I'm always late to these, but here's what I started. Needs sorting and pruning, and some further, as George Saunders might say; escalation.
What Happens if You Listen to Too Much Jazz
- Foot tapping (beats 2 & 4!)
- Head shaking (both beats, heavier on beats 2 & 4)
- Staring off into the distance (while trying to remember the solo)
- Passive sitting (while tapping/shaking)
- Repeating facial expressions three times (in time)
- Being agreeable (Uh huh, Uh huh, Uh huh)
- Wearing a porkpie hat
- Surprise when you see a photograph of musicians that is in color
- Start using phrases like 'dig it!' or 'solid, man!'
- Using 'man' at the end of every statement
- Shop on Amazon for replacement styluses for your turntable
- Are unable to let any of your record collection go
- Wear sunglasses indoors or at night
- Speaking in jive, or using made up sounds (bop-bop-do-wah)
- Hand drumming on every new piece of furniture that comes within arms reach
- Unexpected desire for heroin (even though you've only shared a joint one time, while in a car listening to Chet Baker)
I think I should be able to continue to escalate off the heroin direction
I came up with two, very wordy titles and one succinct one. All from the hotel industry where I used to work, because when you mash up a variety of people, antics naturally happen!
1. How you can just tell what the hotel guest will steal while they're at your resort...at check-in.
2. Lost & Found Items on the Monday after a sold-out weekend at your resort where the convention guests were from a religious association, a government meeting and a sex addicts retreat.
3. How to pick porn for your hotel guests.
Hotel industry is a great topic to mine. Lots of comedy there.
I like 3 the most because it's clear and succinct and funny.
1 promising too but I'd see if you can trim it to be more concise.
2 is a nice brainstorm but overly complicated in current form. I think this one is a case where you have a bunch of extra details in the headline that could be funny details in the piece itself but don't need to be in the headline. As an exercise you could try to reduce this headline to it's simplest form. What's the one (and only one) most funny thing about the headline? Just keep that.
Some stray thoughts and ideas until something better comes along....
1. Who elected you Queen? One worker bee’s manifesto.
2. Who elected you, Queen? How spell checkers mess up as much as they fixe.
3. How I know Sheila is trying to kill me with cheese.
4. Cleanup on Aisle 35: A Hallmark/Walmart Romance.
5. Behind the Mask: Confessions of a reformed raccoon.
6. FAQ: The ten things in you duct work that can kill you.
7. The secrets of flush: Toilet design through the ages.
Nice. 5 and 6 stood out the most to me for a funny list idea.
So excited this class is in my inbox! What I loved about the included stories is how their specificity makes them instantly relatable, even if the reader isn't "in the know". (The 4% jazz one had me cackling)
To make a long family drama short, we uh, gained *15* animals overnight and sort of became a homestead last week (not by choice!). So I narrowed this to animal themes and just brainstormed titles. Here are 5 that I feel like I can nail down a voice for:
- I’m Goat, Your New Goat (and If All Goes According to Plan, the Next Anti-Christ)! AMA!
- FAQ Regarding Vigilante Justice within Our Chicken Community
- What to Know about the Black Rabbit Your Daughter Brought into Your Home and Named ‘Nightmare’
- FAQ Regarding Our Cockapoo’s Recent Demotion from Genetically Abominable Lapdog to Lassie-Era Farm Dog
- Our Farm Return Policy on Telepathic Chickens: FAQ
Great!
These were super fun pitches. My fave pitches as written were
"FAQ Regarding Vigilante Justice..." I'd make a v. minor tweak by slightly specifying what kind of chicken community b/c the phrase "chicken community" is not nec. obvious in meaning. So you could say "Urban Chick Community" or "Chicken Farm" or some other well known-phrase.
and "FAQ About the Black Rabbit Your Daughter Brought Home and Named ‘Nightmare’"
(slightly simplified title)
The goat one was fun but a tad overcomplicated and you could simplify it: "I'm Your New Goat! AMA!"
(the part about "I'm the next anti-christ" you could communicate in the piece itself. Sticking it in the title felt just a tad extra to me)
This is super helpful, thank you so much!!
Hi Mandy
These are all pretty good. For me the two chicken-themed ideas feel like they have the most potential.
On the last one, "Our farm return policy..." I think you could delete the ": FAQ" at the end.
-Mark
Thank you! I couldn't decide if I liked the more specific or more general ones better!
Love the principles. Here are some of my ideas:
Traumatic memories from my childhood that my family laughs about now:
1. When Mom fell into my sister's drum set carrying food down the steps on the fourth of July and the high hat punctured her butt cheek
2. When Blackjack our black lab shat on the shag carpet and Dad threated the beat the hell out of him so my brother picked up the turd with his bare hands and threw it out the sliding glass door
3. When my brother wanted his own room so badly he lived in the hot water heater closet for a few months
4. When my nana got lost on our vacation to Virginia Beach and no one went to go look for her and she turned up a few hours later with a bad sunburn
5. When my brother and sister locked my mom in the basement when they were 4 and 5 years old and they only let her out after she bribed them with cookies
6. When Blackjack escaped from the kennel when we were on vacation and no one knew where he was except the neighbor whose dog later had puppies
7. When our car broke down on the highway and my brother’s rich friend drove by and used his car phone to call a tow truck instead of just driving us home
Hi Patricia! For me 3 and 7 seem like they have great potential, especially if for 3 you give your narrator a strong voice/sense of justice or injustice.
The car phone is such an enigma now, something my kids wouldn't even be able to fathom! For 7 you can use the memory as a base and maybe make it a list like Alex suggests. "Reasons My Rich Friend Can't Give Me a Ride to the Airport" or something like that. Good luck!!
Hey Patricia,
Nice brainstorm. Mining funny or traumatic childhood memories is a nice idea generator.
If you want to do the list exercise, I would see if you can turn one of 1-7 (or a few of them) into a list idea.
Here's an example: Let's say you go with 4. A funny idea to explore would be what Nana did when she was missing
e.g. "What I Imagine Nana Did When She Disappeared At The Beach"
Hi Patricia
"Interesting" family...
I think 1, 3, 5 and 6 have the greatest potential for expansion into humorous first person essays, if that is what you were thinking of doing.