delphine okoye diary

I Submitted the Same Humor Piece to Twelve Different Outlets Over Two Years Before It Finally Got Accepted, and I Kept a Genuinely Unhinged Spreadsheet Tracking Every Single Rejection

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I Submitted the Same Humor Piece to Twelve Different Outlets Over Two Years Before It Finally Got Accepted, and I Kept a Genuinely Unhinged Spreadsheet Tracking Every Single Rejection – Twelve submissions. Eleven rejections, each with its own specific flavor of polite discouragement. Then, finally, a yes that made the whole spreadsheet worth it.

A Reader Wrote In Convinced My Satirical Piece Was a Genuine, Serious News Story, and I Am Still Deciding Whether That Is the Best or Worst Compliment I Have Ever Received

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A Reader Wrote In Convinced My Satirical Piece Was a Genuine, Serious News Story, and I Am Still Deciding Whether That Is the Best or Worst Compliment I Have Ever Received – She was furious. Genuinely, sincerely furious, at a completely invented premise. I do not know whether to feel proud or mildly concerned.

I Have Been Staring at a Blank Page for Six Hours Trying to Write Something Funny About a Genuinely Terrible Week, and I Am Starting to Wonder if Humor Writing Just Does Not Work That Way

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I Have Been Staring at a Blank Page for Six Hours Trying to Write Something Funny About a Genuinely Terrible Week, and I Am Starting to Wonder if Humor Writing Just Does Not Work That Way – The deadline does not care that the week was bad. The page, six hours in, remains stubbornly, uncooperatively blank.

I Got to Watch a Reader Actually Laugh Out Loud at My Writing for the First Time, and It Completely Recalibrated How I Think About This Whole Job

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I Got to Watch a Reader Actually Laugh Out Loud at My Writing for the First Time, and It Completely Recalibrated How I Think About This Whole Job – Years of writing for an invisible, unknowable audience. Then, once, by pure accident, I got to actually watch the joke land in real time.

My Editor Asked Me to Write a Piece Making Fun of a Story I Actually, Secretly Agreed With, and I Am Still Working Out Whether I Can Do That Job Honestly

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My Editor Asked Me to Write a Piece Making Fun of a Story I Actually, Secretly Agreed With, and I Am Still Working Out Whether I Can Do That Job Honestly – Satire is supposed to punch at absurdity wherever it finds it. Tonight I am discovering how much harder that principle is to hold onto when the target is something I privately believe in.