Two-Day Intensive: Funny Personal Essays (V)

Why do you laugh when you read? Because you relate? Because you’re surprised? Because life is an absurd farce? In this two-day intensive, we’ll discuss the many ways to make a reader laugh and how to turn an anecdote into an essay that’s funny and publishable. On day one we’ll gossip about the funny personal essays we read before class and what we can steal from them, and we’ll brainstorm essay topics and angles. We’ll also cover how to make a funny personal essay transcend the personal and how to isolate “the unusual thing” in our situations to carve out our stories. Day two you’ll bring in a crappy first draft that we’ll punch up with in-class writing assignments and nonreligious prayer.