"Remind me What a Verb is Again?"

Everyone has done a Mad Lib at one point or another. My friends and I do them regularly, and because of our plethora of inside jokes and obscure references, and our tendency to playfully insult each other, the results usually turn out hilarious.

Here's a fun little writing exercise: take a short passage, preferably an action-packed or funny one, from your writing. Replace some of the key words (people's names, parts of the body, strong verbs, etc.) with blanks, under which you write the part of speech (or other identifier, such as "number"). Finally, give it a title. Here's a sample:

The Bar-fight

A flurry of ______ [plural noun] and ______ [plural noun] from all over the room met _______[girl' name]'s ears. She took them all in stride, _______[verb ending in -ing] brighter with every _______[adjective] barb, which in turn made the mob of ______[adjective] ______[plural noun] even more _______[adjective].

You may have to edit the passage you choose slightly so that it works better as a Mad Lib. (The above passage was adapted from Shadows, which you can find on the Table of Contents.) Try this out, and share it with friends - the results may be hilarious. Here's what happened when I played this with my brother:

The Bar-fight

A flurry of dogs and cats from all over the room met Megan's ears. She took them all in stride, creeping brighter with every fluffy insult, which in turn made the mob of slimy lamps even more grimy.