The light stuff

One of Sara Faith Alterman's most popular ImprovBoston sketches pokes fun at film noir.

Alterman wrote the bit during one of the weekends she studied at New York's Second City comedy club, an offshoot of Chicago's storied Second City, where ''Saturday Night Live" cast members such as Mike Myers and Tina Fey got their start.

Alterman's film noir routine -- one of her first to be performed by ImprovBoston, where she recently became head writer -- involves a detective and a femme fatale who comes to his office. The tough, brooding detective assumes she's a damsel in distress, but she's not in need of any real assistance. She just wants to use his phone.

Cue audience laughter.

''We like the idea that the woman is presenting her needs," Alterman says, ''and the man is misinterpreting her."

Such is the humor of the 25-year-old Alterman. She thrives on incorporating a woman's perspective into her comedy routines, but is careful not to alienate the guys in the audience. As the first head writer for the ImprovBoston comedy troupe, Alterman is now a consultant and coach to a group of comedians who are used to being hilarious without any help.

''It's been great," she said of working with the team of improvisers. ''I mean, I met with some resistance at first . . . but once we learned to trust each other we developed a really good working relationship."

The wavy-haired and mostly makeup free Alterman, who lives in Somerville and was raised in Sudbury, is not only coming into her own with ImprovBoston. She's also just released her first book, ''My 15 Minutes," a tale about a feisty young waitress who grabs the attention of a heartthrob celebrity.

''My 15 Minutes" came out just last month, but Alterman's already finished book two and is starting her third. She writes fast, eats fast, and talks fast, usually with her hands. As she explains how she wound up in the world of comedy and, now, publishing, she waves them around as if she's doing a mini stand-up routine.

''Dawson's Creek," she says, the first of many non sequiturs she throws out during her biographical narrative. ''It was filmed in North Carolina."

OK, a bit of background. Alterman graduated from the University of Rochester, where she studied film and media, and then moved to South Carolina, which, along with North Carolina, had gained a reputation as a haven for cheap filmmaking, partly because of the teen drama ''Dawson's Creek" and movies such as ''Cold Mountain."

Alterman settled in Myrtle Beach, and for almost two years, she doubled as a production assistant and waitress. Both jobs were thankless and tiring.

''They order their peon who orders their peon who orders you," she said of life as a production assistant. Alterman's misery spawned her first book.

''My 15 Minutes," written almost entirely in a Myrtle Beach Starbucks, was the result of Alterman journaling her woes. She wove her daily trials into the fictional story of Julie Jorlamo, a 20-something waitress whose fate is changed when she moves into the same building as hunky actor Chad Downing.

The book has at times a Bridget Jones vibe, but Alterman's work is perhaps more comparable to the light novels of Jennifer Weiner, who penned ''Good in Bed" and ''In Her Shoes," now a film starring Cameron Diaz.

Alterman admits that her heroine, Julie, is ''quite obviously me." The characters in her fictional story are based on the world she knew in those days. The actor, Chad, is an amalgam of multiple celebrities -- with a dash of an ex-boyfriend.

Billie, a character who serves as the heroine's eccentric best friend, is based on 26-year-old Wayland native Becky Girolamo, Alterman's close friend, whose last name was borrowed for the book's main character.

Getting ''15 Minutes" published was surprisingly simple. She sent her text to multiple literary agents. One quickly picked her up, and ''My 15 Minutes" was sold to Avon Trade, a division of Harper Collins.

Alterman is currently touring bookstores, but says she's still rooted in comedy. It was because of comedy, she says, that she got the confidence to sell her novel in the first place. She had taken a trip to Chicago for an intense course at Second City, signing up for a class as a way out of film production.

There, she met a comedian she admired, a fellow student, who turned out to be Will Luera, the artistic director at ImprovBoston.

''I met this guy I was just immediately impressed by," she said of Luera. ''He was from Boston and I was from Boston."

Luera and Alterman met up again months after they both returned from Chicago. She was living in suburbia with her parents and securing her book deal, while making trips to New York's Second City for more training and inspiration. Luera asked if she would help write ImprovBoston's annual holiday show. She accepted, and was named head writer for the group in January, shortly after her film noir skit and other material charmed the group.

Luera said Alterman has helped ImprovBoston focus on writing planned sketches, as opposed to basic, on-the-spot improv skits.

One of Luera's favorite ImprovBoston routines by Alterman featured a group of men in a car discussing their conquests. The punch line comes when the audience gets the perspective of items on the car dashboard, a figurine of Jesus and a plastic hula girl, brought to life by improv actors.

''Suddenly, you got to see it from their point of view, that they're dealing with these guys on a regular basis," Luera said of Alterman's so-called ''Dashboard Confessional" sketch.

Alterman is splitting her time between comedy writing and book writing. Her second novel, due out next year, is tentatively titled ''Tears of a Class Clown." It's about a 20-something bartender from Boston who prepares for her 10-year high school reunion.

Lucia Macro, Alterman's editor at Avon, says the book features a character coping with ''funny girl syndrome" -- what it's like to be known as the amusing sidekick, something she imagines Alterman knows plenty about.

As Alterman starts book three, she is also writing her first full-length show for ImprovBoston, titled, ''Choose Wife: Your Father Did." The sketch comedy show, which will be performed in November at ImprovBoston, was inspired by a speech made by Governor Mitt Romney about his desire to do away with emergency contraception.

''It's scary to be a woman, and I'm upset about that," she said, almost immediately laughing and promising that ''Wife" will not be a downer, but will make audiences think.

Audiences can also catch Alterman in her first-ever performance role with the ImprovBoston group, as a cast member in its Halloween show, ''Gorefest III," which starts Oct. 27. In the past, Alterman has been too shy to audition, especially in front of her own crew, but she was determined to satisfy the high school choir geek inside of her, the one who envisioned a career on stage.

''I actually got a fairly decent part," she said. ''It's been a lot of fun."

With weekly rehearsals added to the writing gigs, plus two part-time jobs to pay the bills, Alterman says that down time is out of the question. Rest does not come with funny girl syndrome.

''I don't really sleep a lot," Alterman said, finishing a Dunkin' Donuts coffee. ''I'm not unhappy about that. It's hard for me to sit still."

Meredith Goldstein can be reached at mgoldstein@globe.com.