Comedy Writing Self-Taught Workbook. Gene Perret

      

       Comedy Writing Self-Taught

       WORKBOOK

       More than 100 practical writing exercises to develop your comedy writing skills

       Gene Perret and Linda Perret

      Fresno, California

      Comedy Writing Self-Taught Workbook

      Copyright © 2014 by Gene Perret and Linda Perret. All rights reserved.

      Published by Quill Driver Books

      An imprint of Linden Publishing

      2006 South Mary Street, Fresno, California 93721

      [phone] / [phone]

       QuillDriverBooks.com

      Quill Driver Books and Colophon are trademarks of

      Linden Publishing, Inc.

      ISBN 978-1-61035-240-6

      eISBN 978-1-61035-261-1

      135798642

      Printed in the United States of America

      on acid-free paper.

      Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data on file.

       To the many great humorists of tomorrow—you know who you are.

       —Gene

       To all my Round Table Friends—a great group of writers and performers.

       —Linda

       Contents

      Foreword

      Introduction

      How to Use This Book

       Part One: General Joke Writing

Exercise 1: Collect Fifty Great One-Liners

Exercise 2: Captioning

Exercise 3: A Little Tougher Captioning

Exercise 4: Captioning Words

Exercise 5: Gathering References

Exercise 6: In the News

Exercise 7: Turn Ideas into Jokes

Exercise 8: The Almost Right Word

Exercise 9: It’s All Around Us

Exercise 10: Inspired by Legends

       Exercise 11: That Makes Perfect Nonsense

       Exercise 12: Tag That Line

       Exercise 13: Say It by Not Saying It

       Exercise 14: Outside the Box

       Exercise 15: Same Word, Different Meaning

       Exercise 16: It Means What You Mean It to Mean

       Exercise 17: Same Old Words, Brand-New Meaning

       Exercise 18: Don’t Quit Too Soon

       Exercise 19: Merely Fill in the Blanks

       Exercise 20: On the Shoulders of Giants

       Exercise 21: Relationships That Aren’t Really Related

       Exercise 22: One Joke Begets Many

       Exercise 23: Ready, Set, Write

       Exercise 24: Assignment Unknown

       Part Two: General Stand-Up Writing

       Exercise 25: Take Good Notes

       Exercise 26: Compact the Act

       Exercise 27: What Are They Talking About?

       Exercise 28: Writing a Chunk

       Exercise 29: Writing for a Specific Person

       Exercise 30: Writing in Bite-Size Chunks—Part A

       Exercise 31: Writing in Bite-Size Chunks—Part B

       Exercise 32: Writing in Bite-Size Chunks—Part C

       Exercise 33: Now Cut Your Precious Jokes

       Exercise 34: Smooth Transitions

       Exercise 35: Baking a Monologue

       Exercise 36: Working toward the Finish Line

       Exercise 37: Now Write

       Exercise 38: Roast a Friend

       Exercise 39: Write Whatever So-and-So Wants

       Exercise 40: That’s Handy

       Exercise 41: There Are Two Sides to Every Topic

       Exercise 42: Late-Night TV

       Exercise 43: Be Prepared

       Exercise 44: Learn to Overwrite

       Exercise 45: Pick Your Best

       Exercise 46: Not Done Yet

       Exercise 47: Killing Dead Time

       Part Three: Writing for Your Mentor

       Exercise 48: Pick Your Mentor

       Exercise 49: The Best of Your Mentor

       Exercise 50: Let Your Mentor Mentor

       Exercise 51: You’ve Been Hired

       Exercise 52: Waste Not, Want Not

       Exercise 53: Find the Right Formula

       Exercise 54: Hello, Good-bye

       Exercise 55: Tailor-Made

       Exercise 56: Dedicated Chunk

       Exercise 57: Where Did That Come From?

       Exercise 58: Strengthen the Weaknesses

       Exercise 59: Strengthen the Strengths

       Exercise 60: Let It Sit

       Exercise 61: Special Appearances