For this week, my challenge was one involving our class project. The assignment called for us to post a guest piece on another blog. It could be a fellow student's, friend's, work's blog, or a full up and running website. Whatever we wanted. When first hearing of this assignment, I immediately thought of Oh My Disney. Imagine Buzzfeed but all about Disney! As a die-hard Disney fan, this is my secret get away. If I was stuck on a deserted island, I'd think about brining just this website. Although not true at all, y'all should check it out!
Before you go thinking, "What kind of challenge is this? You're not learning anything." I get what you're saying, but with this assignment, we had to completely change our writing style. I had to fit the voice of the page I was writing for and keep to it strictly. As you'll see that can be extremely difficult.
In the end, I actually wrote a piece for The Swish, a satirical site that Connor McCausland runs, a close friend from freshman year! For anyone who knows Connor, "hysterical" is one of the first words to pop in their mind. So, there was a pressure looming over me to keep it extremely funny! Keeping it funny was only one tough aspect, the other was to keep his writing style and voice in it. I wanted this piece to blend in with the rest, so no one would ever think that Connor didn't write this. This was actually just one of the challenges in writing an Onion-like satyrical piece.
The other was coming up with an actual topic to write about. As I'm sure you all know, satirical pieces are often about a ridiculous topic. I'm often left in an envious glare, wondering how anyone could've thought of that. For my piece, I wanted to write about a pop phenomenon that took our culture by storm for a couple of months and then simply died out. I thought bringing it back would also bring some laughs. After many nights of failing to think of anything, I was finally hit with inspiration while just waking up one morning! Sleeping and dreams = where the real magic happens! That'll be my reasoning for why I have a bed in my office one day. Seriously, though, I've thought of most of my ideas for this blog while sleeping.
For this post, I decided to write about the foxes being offended by Ylvis' "What Does the Fox Say?" If foxes could talk, I bet they'd be angered by this song. For real. After brain storm sessions with my roommates and Connor, we decided the funniest piece would be about cultural appropriation sensitivities involving Ylvis and the foxes.
Now that I had the idea, I needed to actually write the satirical report. As you can tell/might be annoyed by, I tend to be a wordy writer. I like to go into detail and often get sidetracked, but I was left to create a whole story and report all in a few paragraphs. Although it's a short post, I spent a couple of hours with hands on the keyboards, typing away, deleting paragraphs, and struggling in general. I wanted to tell a ridiculous story that fit with the theme.
After struggling for some time, I was eventually able to hit a groove and find a satirical, reporter voice that told the story of offended foxes. But the challenge was not quite over. Next, I had to see what Connor liked/would change. Some take criticism as an attack to their comedy or writing ability, but I've learned when it comes to blogging, there is never too much critiquing. You have to stretch yourself into uncomfortable situations in order to grow and be the best.
Again, you can check out my post on foxes here.
After struggling for some time, I was eventually able to hit a groove and find a satirical, reporter voice that told the story of offended foxes. But the challenge was not quite over. Next, I had to see what Connor liked/would change. Some take criticism as an attack to their comedy or writing ability, but I've learned when it comes to blogging, there is never too much critiquing. You have to stretch yourself into uncomfortable situations in order to grow and be the best.
Again, you can check out my post on foxes here.
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