When You Finally Break Through
Thoughts in the aftermath of that elusive first acceptance
Check out my first post here to read more about the namesake of this newsletter and make a copy of the input/output tracking sheet if you so desire.
Last Call on My First Two 2024 Classes!
Note: I am only teaching through April of this year. No more 2024 classes after that!
Write Like an Athlete through Writing Co-Lab (THREE SPOTS LEFT). We’ll combine creativity practices with tenants of sports psychology, drawn from my years as a long distance swimmer (double state champ, no big). This is a two-hour, virtual interactive talk, and you’ll receive the slides and a plethora of resources afterward. $75!
Stop Worrying and Start Your Book Proposal! also through Writing Co-Lab (TWO SPOTS LEFT). This is the ONLY book proposal class I’m teaching this year. You don’t need a firm idea to take it! In fact, learning about the market and pieces of a proposal can help you shape your idea moreso than noodling on it all by yourself. We’ll run through potential comps, organizing principals, platform superboosts, and more in this three-hour class. You get the slides with google docs of linked sucessful proposals afterward. Bona fides: I got a six-figure book deal in 2018 off a co-written proposal, and I have more news about a second successful proposal coming soon. $125!
Congratulations to my mentee Carly Gibson on her first McSweeney’s piece today!
It’s a topical piece tied to President’s Day, with a truly excellent comedic premise:
If Presidents Had Real Housewives–Style Catchphrases
I asked Carly to answer a few questions about the piece and her thoughts on what made this her breakthrough at McSweeney’s:
Why do you think this piece was accepted after getting a string of rejections?
I think that this piece was accepted because it was the first time I focused on my writing voice rather than the act of writing a satirical/humor piece. I always psych myself out when writing a piece I intend for McSweeney's because the people who read and write there are super smart. This time I leaned into my personal interests - housewives and history - and luckily the stars aligned! I'd worked really hard on craft for over a year prior, so when this idea came to me I focused on writing jokes with the sole intention of making my friends laugh, but I can't deny that it was also a stronger piece of writing than anything I'd submitted before.
How did the two parts of the idea—presidents and Real Housewives—connect in your brain?
I never skip the housewives introductions because the taglines crack me up. I started wondering what else would benefit from digestible, ridiculous, and catty introductions. I listed some possibilities that I would want to poke fun at and wasn't sold on presidents, but pretty quickly the FDR beat came to me about the New Deal, and I liked that joke so much that I kept writing president-specific jokes.
When did you decide that images were needed for the full impact?
I'm a really, really big fan of botched Photoshop images. There's something so funny about them to me. Initially, I took real images from housewives' openings and put Madison's face on top of Lisa Rinna, but it wasn't perfect. My fiance reminded me that you can pull people out of an image on your phone, and so I tried it with George Washington and his posture was perfect to sell the joke. Because the image is standalone, it gives it the perfect amount of cunty energy.
Carly’s story reminds me so much of my own first McSweeney’s acceptance, way back in 2012. I had just moved to Portland, OR, from Chicago, had no friends, and decided I would try to fit in with the locals by going to yoga classes—a form of exercise I still hate to this day. I was bad at yoga and didn’t make any friends there, but I did notice one key thing: the bios for the yoga instructors on the studio website were…strange. Like, very strange.
In fact, it seemed like each person had come to yoga via a trauma (family death), injury (torn rotator cuffs from a car accident with a semi), or mental breakdown (their stay in a psychiatric facility detailed). I had never seen such trauma-filled bios for any other profession.
The comedic presmise came to me one day as I was struggling with a very basic pose: I could use the FORM of a bio, and heighten the PREMISE of the trauma in each one to create a humor piece. I wrote and submitted the piece within a week, and when I got the acceptance email, I cried.
I had been rejected from McSweeney’s many times by that point because I was basically aping what I already saw on the site. This piece was the first time I felt the “click” of something I had personally observed combine with my own unique comedic sensibility, very similar to what happened for Carly.
I’ve now published twenty times on McSweeney’s, but my first piece holds a very special place in my heart—like I suspect Carly’s will for her.
What was your “breakthrough” piece? Whether breaking into an outlet, a frst publication, or just a piece you thought would never find a home. Drop links, I would love to read them!
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ABOUT ME: My name is Caitlin Kunkel and I’m a comedy writer, long-time teacher, and creator of The Second City’s Online Satire Writing Program. I currently teach classes and consult on gift book proposals, modern adaptation, satire, and comedic literature. I co-founded The Belladonna Comedy and the Satire and Humor Festival, and I co-wrote the satirical gift book New Erotica for Feminists: Satirical Fantasies of Love, Lust, and Equal Pay, named one of the Top 10 Comedy Books of 2018 by Vulture.
This is so great! I submitted over fifty times before I had my first McSweeney’s acceptance and love hearing about others that finally break through. (https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/cursed-volcano-or-not-were-buying-this-house-sight-unseen)
Meanwhile, I was so glad to be able to submit and publish in places like Points in Case and Slackjaw to keep me motivated.
Love this!!!