Gene Perret is a master of classic humor, and in Comedy Writing Step by Step he coaches the reader from a blank sheet of paper all the way to developing a standup routine. We’re going to adapt a few exercises from the book, and today’s exercise is one of them.

For today’s ten-minute writing exercise:

Write down a sentence that includes a bland adjective, or an adjective you know that you tend to overuse. He wore a white suit.

Brainstorm at least fifteen associated entities or concepts that could be used as a substitute for that word. Perret gives examples like white -> wedding dress, snowman, blank pages, bedsheets, ghost.

Now, rewrite your sentence incorporating one of the substitutes you generated. His suit was ghostly white.

Now rewrite it again, and this time come around to the adjective by an indirect path through the substitute. With the suit he was wearing, this guy could flit around a haunted house and fit right in.

Repeat.

Our themes this month are:

• Love in all its forms
• Dialogue
• Comedy Writing Step by Step by Gene Perret

We will also write a complete work of flash fiction together in a week from Feb 17 – Feb 23. No pre-work needed, and as always, zero homework outside of our ten minutes a day. This month we’ll use Dan Harmon’s story circles method to plan out our stories.