Give Thanks, For It Is Friday
Ah yes, the popular expression/chain restaurant: G.T.,F.I.I.F.
We have some fun news this week! The Belladonna editors want to shout out/congratulate our very own Kristen Mulrooney, one of three grand prize winners of A Hotel Room of One’s Own: The Erma Bombeck | Anna Lefler Humorist-in-Residence Program!!! We’re so excited to read all the incredible humor she writes during this March 2022 residency!
Now let’s get into it:
LAST WEEK ON THE BELLADONNA
Is It Supposed to Look Like This? A YouTube Makeup Tutorial by Zianna Weston
“Great, now that your face looks *blotchy, but you can still fix it, right?* it’s time for some contouring.”
I’ve Grown As A Person So I Definitely Have To Give This Speech At The High School Dance by Lily Hirsch
“My growth doesn’t count if I don’t tell you about it at the high school dance.”
Items We Really Want On Our Wedding Registry In 2021 by Sarah Totton
“Summer & Isaac are registered at: Boundaries Boutique.”
Nightly Itinerary Of Someone Who Desperately Hopes To Sleep Tonight by Stacey Curran
“Who sat next to me in first grade?”
I Love My Cancer Surgeon Boyfriend, But I Wish He Did Amateur Improv, Just Like All My Exes by Miriam Jayaratna
“And here are all the reasons why.”
EDITORS EXPLAIN: Stale topic, fresh angle
Editors often see the same topics appear in submissions over and over again, and sometimes we’ll pass on a fantastic piece of writing because it’s too similar to something we’ve already seen or published before. So how can you surprise us?
One way is to use the List of 10. Once you have a topic, make a list of 10 different angles you can present to the reader. The first 3 you list are probably the ones everyone else has already thought of — maybe even the first 5…
But once you hit your 6th, 7th, 8th idea… you probably had to stretch your brain to get to those ones, and that’s when you start presenting a unique angle or point of view. That’s when you’re ready to write.
An example of a new twist: We get a lot recipe spoofs, usually satirizing the 2,000 word journal entry before the recipe. But this Caroline Cotter piece about the woman who comments “Divine” on every recipe was a new observation we hadn’t seen before.
So stretch your mind and search the corners of your brain for your weirdest ideas and takes! Remember your 1st, 2nd, 3rd ideas are the ideas everyone else is thinking too, but the ones after that are the ones that start to become YOUR unique voice and perspective.
We can’t wait to see the inventive pieces you write!
FINAL THOUGHTS
Follow The Belladonna on Twitter and Instagram!
And if you’ve been published in The Belladonna before, you can join our Slack Writers’ Room — just email us at thebelladonnacomedy@gmail.com and we’ll add you!
Thanks for reading, and keep being your amazing selves!
— The Belladonna Editors
(Brooke, Fiona, Ashley, Emily, Alice, Heidi, and Kristen)