Lesson 7 - Publishing Habits

The five essential habits of well-published humor writers.

Art by Mariam Chagelishvili

This is lesson 7 of 8 from Alex Baia’s Forever Workshop “Humor Writers, Get in Here!”

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It’s the final week of the workshop. We’ve come so damn far.

Now that we’ve discussed humor writing craft for the past three weeks, let’s get into publishing your work. 

Today, I want to focus on five essential habits of well-published humor writers. Treat these habits as your publishing foundation. 

1. Well-published humor writers take their drafts across the finish line. 

When it comes to humor drafts, I like the phrase “crossing the finish line.” It says all the right things. It means that you always make your drafts as tight and funny as you can make them before you send them off for publication. 

Too often, I see humor writers who edit half-heartedly and half-assedly. They might rewrite a piece once, or make a few edits here or there, but they’ll submit it for publication before it’s truly ready to go.

To land great pieces, this will not do. To consistently get published, especially by the more competitive publications, you have to invest in editing and rewriting, and you have to do it with your whole heart, ass, and soul. You must take the piece across the finish line—even if it means rewriting the piece three or four or five times. Even if it means nitpicking words and punchlines until everything is hunky dory.

Beware: A piece that has not crossed the finish line can still be a pretty funny piece! But the author did not bother to make it as funny and tight as they possibly could. And that’s a sin against the Gods of Humor. This “almost good enough” piece might have a few lingering sentences or sections that could be trimmed or tightened. It might have some weak punchlines that even the author is not super-enthusiastic about. 

Small weaknesses add up. They make a huge difference to the whole. Editors notice them. If you have a second or third draft of a piece that’s sitting at 800 words, and it has a couple of bloated paragraphs and, say, three weaker punchlines, you need to turn it around once more. Invest in another editing session. A final hour spent trimming the last of the fat and turning those final punchlines from “meh” to real zingers is an hour well spent.

You’re probably wondering, “How many drafts do I need in order to cross the finish line?” The answer is: As many as it takes. Sorry for the tautology, dawg.