Friday, March 19, 2010

Writing Humor for Cracked.com (and Regretful Morning)

I didn't want to talk about this in detail until my piece was finally posted, but it's here now, so here we go!

Here's the article, if you haven't seen it yet: 5 Movie Romances That Won't Last (According to Science)

(Just so you know, it can get kinda crazy on Cracked, and it's not suitable for all audiences).

My original impression of Cracked (as described in detail in my article Writing for Fun and Profit) was that it was really, really hard to get a pitch accepted. My opinion hasn't changed. I worked harder on my Cracked article than I have on any article before or since. And even just getting to the stage of having a Cracked article to "work on" is like running a gauntlet through a bunch of slap-happy mimes in and of itself. I'd guess that Cracked gets hundreds of pitches every single day. Just try to find an original idea in all that craziness!

I continue to pitch ideas on the site, and you should to! Check out I want you to make comedy for Cracked for more information. Once you join the Cracked Comedy Workshop, you'll be able to pitch articles, and also get a lot of great insight from other writers and editors at Cracked.

And don't think "Oh, I could never write for Cracked." I thought the same thing for a year before I joined on a whim, and look where I am now. I will say, for those who are interested, that coming up with an intriguing and original article pitch that you can back up with information from the real world is almost as important as knowing how to write comedy.

Also, if you liked my Cracked article, I'm sure you'd be interested in 5 Reasons Your Gaming System is Better than your Girlfriend over on Regretful Morning.

Questions? Thoughts? Leave a comment!

3 comments:

Andrew said...

It was a great article!
I read it this morning, and it led me to your blog here. Congrats!

Karen Harrington said...

That was great, Emma! Thanks for sharing. I'd never been to Cracked.com before. :)

Unknown said...

Glad you guys liked it! Thanks for stopping by!