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Draft
Now that you’ve got some ideas to kick around, it’s time to start making choices. Check out the following exercises and tips to begin crafting the first draft of your humorous piece.

Ideas and Techniques

Drafting Against Expectations
Humorous writing usually plays against expectations. Follow this exercise to set-up and surprise your reader.

What if?
Great comedy requires great imagination. Follow this exercise and ask the right questions.

Drafting a Parody
Parody is playful imitation. Follow this prompt and poke fun at a famous piece of writing.

Tricked with David Sedaris (PDF | 657KB)
Learn to exploit your most embarrassing moments from a master humorist.

 
Featured Author

“Rather than writing drafts for 'Just Face It,' I chose a beginning point and wrote from there to the end. When it was completely finished, I edited the pieces I found to be boring or non-essential.”
—Jenna Maxwell
Read Jenna Maxwell’s award-winning piece, “Just Face It.”

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