Here’s a weird comic I did in response to the McSweeney’s contest inspired by Dan Wiencek‘s “13 Writing Prompts.”
4.
Write a story that ends with the following sentence: Debra brushed the sand from her blouse, took a last, wistful look at the now putrefying horse, and stepped into the hot-air balloon.
Happily Ever After.
And in case you didn’t hear, ukuleles are all the rage.
“When you show up at a party with a guitar, it’s serious. People expect something!”
Awesome comic, Austin, and a great solution to a prompt that I wouldn’t have been able to find a way to write about. Instead, my submission was based on this prompt:
Your main character finds a box of scorched human hair. Whose is it? How did it get there?
ooh, that’s a good one. you should post it.
Actually, McSweeney’s will be running it, so I’ll have to wait until it’s up on their site, then I’ll link over. Did you send this to them? I can’t believe they didn’t take it.
good for you! yeah, i sent it, but nah, i never heard from them.
My son sent a contest entry for the McSweeney’s Lemony Snickett writing contest (he also incorporated comic panels) and never heard a word of encouragement or response either. Way to crush a 10-year-old’s ideas that he might be able to write well.
I liked your response to the writing prompts much better than the cosmonaut bit they picked.
thanks, encouraging. i’ve never had a good experience with mcsweeneys, but i wonder if maybe they just are so swamped with entries they can’t always be encouraging! (they did choose matt’s entry, though, so they can’ t be all bad…)