Drawing and Killing My Darlings

A peek at an upcoming piece

Hello everyone!

So I often get asked if I illustrate my pieces so they make more money. To which I respond, “HAHAHAHAHAAHAHA!”

But seriously, most of my best performing articles are imageless. A few have done well, but not enough for me to tell someone it’s a foolproof way to achieve comedy success.

Here is what illustrations do. They entertain your reader and convey a message faster than you can write. They are easily sharable and fun to look at. They can provide a visual punchline that readers will love. And, for me personally at least, they help with the writing process.

In my drafts folder there is a piece called Business Books by Historical Figures. I’ve been playing with it for ages and am now working on covers.

Sometimes I can go in cold turkey and just draw.

But with a reference photo I find it’s easier. Thank goodness we live in the era of the internet.

Often I’ll place them in the document itself, on a different layer, so I have access to it quickly for comparison and inspiration.

One thing I dislike about my process is I take too long to do the art. I have a lot to accomplish every day and I suspect I find comfort in drawing and redrawing those lines. When I feel like I’ll never finish anything at least I KNOW I'll get that done, no writer’s block or rejection blues can stop me.

So guess who gets a time limit on the brainstorming? Yeah, it’s me.

Anyway, once the outline is done I get to play with the titles, which is where the bulk of the humor will come from. In this piece, as I played with different ways to display the lettering, deciding whether to make it regular or have it mimic pearls/ribbons, I realized the joke fell flat. So since drawing these I’ve changed the title to something else, along with the content that went with the section. I’d like to say I did it as a surprise, but really I did it because “Let them eat hate” just didn’t work and I knew it. One of the hardest parts about humor writing is admitting when you have a dud.

I hope you enjoyed this mini-peek at what goes on behind the scenes. If you’d like to read a story that has a similar feel check out the self help books written by literary characters in the story section. And let me know if you think I should go back and add some fake book covers like the second story listed below.

Stories

Self Help Books Written by Classic Literary Characters

Extremely Useful but Nonexistent Self Help Books

Thank you for reading!

Kyrie