Tuesday, October 6, 2020

list and tips for hopeful writers

            I don’t know how often you have a question for an author/singer/or some other kind of artist that you need answered ASAP (as soon as possible). I know that it rarely happens to me, but if they are famous enough, they might have a website and if you’re lucky that website will have an FAQ or frequently asked questions. I am not often asked about my work or life, nevertheless, I have decided to compile my own FAQ                                                                                                                                                               


                                                    FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

1.     How are you?

2.     What’s up?

3.     What’s your dog’s name?

4.     Pepsi?

5.     What’s your name?

6.     What?

7.     What?

8.     Michael?

9.     What?

10. What’s new?

11. Who?

12. When?

13. Where?

14. Why?

15. How?

Author’s note? I didn’t say FAQ & A I just said FAQ. ( I didn’t even say it, I typed it.)

 

 

Pointless bonus:  When I was in college (just after the Ice Age) I would submit poetry and/or short stories to my college literary magazine. I didn’t get published until one year I submitted a pantoum (a style of poetry). I wrote this pantoum in high school. It got published not because it was an amazing poem, but because it was a style of poetry. The next year I submitted a villanelle (another poetry style). I actually had written the villanelle that year.  Once again it was published in the literary magazine.

You might be thinking ‘this is all interesting, but why are you telling me this?’ my point is simply this: you can be an amazing writer, but someone else could get published just because they used a simple gimmick. If you are in college and you want your “15 minutes of fame” use a poetry style or an unusual simile. I.e. the man shook like a vibrator, not a leaf. The computer hummed like a man who had forgotten the words and tune to a song? The rain fell with a sound like someone who had just dropped a pound of glass? Try to be unusual!