Editor Interview: Eggplant Emoji Lit

Comedic short fiction

McSweeney's, Humor Me Magazine, The Onion

I publish comedy. My favorite writers are comedians, comedy writers, and comedy shows like South Park and Rick & Morty. To name a few: Kurt Metzger, Harland Williams, Adam Ray, Tim Dillon, and Tony Hinchcliffe.

I admire any publication brave enough to publish comedy, however Eggplant Emoji is different from other comedy publications because instead of premise-based or headline-based pieces, we focus on character-driven stories with a beginning, middle, and end. Most comedy publications cap their word count at 1,000 words, but that is the minimum word count for Eggplant Emoji because at least a couple thousand words are necessary to tell a whole story. Other big differences are that we publish a physical book and we pay authors.

Read the "How to Write Funny" series by Scott Dikkers. Read previous volumes of Eggplant Emoji to get a sense of what we are looking for.

A story between 4-6k words, a really catchy title, a striking first line that makes me laugh, a consistent tempo of wit and punchlines to maintain the comedic tone, characters who act based on their motivations, a full story arc with multiple scenes.

The following are mistakes made by submitters to Eggplant Emoji: Submitting a piece that is 1,000 words or less. Submitting a premise-based piece. Submitting an essay. Submitting a piece that is only one scene. Submitting a piece that only has one joke.

Nothing. No bio. No name attached to the document. No cover letter. No credits. I only want to judge the work submitted.

I believe comedy is the hardest genre to write, which is why I always read every submission to the very end.

None.

I attend a writing group regularly and practice giving feedback on writing. I read about the craft of writing comedy and do my best to apply those lessons to my own writing and to my editing process. Over the last 8 years, I have reviewed more than 800 pieces of writing.

Mostly just line edits. Yes, the author gets final approval. Instead of making edits myself, I prefer to send critiques to the author and I ask them to fix problem areas on their own.

Pushcart Prize