I've just finished two more off of my Pulitzer list, and I think I've got the formula down:
Possible Story Characteristics (Choose THREE to win a Pulitzer):
1. Main Character is extremely obese.
2. Main Character meets untimely demise.
3. Any character has an illness of either a mental or physical variety.
4. Adultery is committed, preferably with a slave.
5. Main character has loving father.
6. Main character has overbearing mother.
7. The marriage of main character (past or present) is highly dysfunctional.
8. Main character's children are either completely idealized or completely insufferable.
9. Author has no regard for commonly known rules of grammar/punctuation.
Let me show you how this works:
1+6+3=A Confederacy of Dunces
1+7+9= The Shipping News
1+2+9= The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
2+7+9=A Death in the Family
3+4+8= March
3+5+6= The Caine Mutiny
2+8+9= The Road
3+7+8= Olive Kitteridge
4+7+8= Rabbit is Rich OR Angle of Repose
Now that I've cracked the code, get to work. How hard can it be for you to now write a Pulitzer Prize-winning piece of fiction?
Mona 5th Ward primary families
9 months ago
5 comments:
sheer brilliance. it's almost a crime you haven't been hired by the New Yorker.
It's a good thing I have such a brillant niece. I couldn't even begin to break the code! Write your fiction so you can be rich and famous so you can take care of me when I'm old!
Excellent, Becca! I have to say that the only books on your list I have read are Angle of Repose and The Shipping News. Thank you for refreshing my memory about the 3 main elements of each. I loved them both, but can't remember much about either. Hm. Now that I think about it, I do remember stuff from each of them and yes, they are dysfunctional. But that's what's fun, right? xxoo
You are hillarious. And brilliant too! No wonder we're kindred spirits....
I LOVE this entry! Now, will you do one on how to win an Oscar, too? I think the formula might not be too far off... ;D
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