Mad-Libs for better writing

   So you know your parts of speech.  Now what?

   Remember, I'm not going to tell you to learn anything that isn't going to make you a better reader and writer.  First, take a minute and pick two topics: a person and a place.
 
    Let's check out the following passages from our summer reading. 
  
     My first impression of Dean was of a young Gene Autry--trim, thin-hipped, blue-eyed, with a real Oklahoma accent--a sideburned hero of the snowy West.  


Seriously descriptive, percussive, with a nice beginning, middle, and end. But you can write like this. You just have to push yourself out of your comfort zone.


Let's break this sentence down. If we labeled the parts of speech, we might come up with something like this: 


My first impression of _______ was of a (adjective) (allusion)--(adjective), (adjective), (adjective) with a (adjective) (adjective) (noun)--a (adjective) (noun) of the (adjective) (noun).  


Now, take your topic and craft a sentence using Kerouac's form.


Let's try McCarthy. Here's a great passage:


With the first gray light he rose and left the boy sleeping and walked out to the road and squatted and studied the country to the south.  Barren, silent, godless.  


Again, of course this is a beautiful sentence. McCarthy piles on the conjunctions at first and the sentence doesn't seem to end. Then he punctuates it with three adjectives. Very cool. But this is all it is:


With the (adjective, adjective, noun) he (verb) and (verb) and (verb) and (verb) and (verb) the (noun) (preposition) (noun).  (Adjective), (adjective), (adjective).  


Give it a shot. You might surprise yourself.