Constrained writing - Definition and Overview

Constrained writing is a literary technique in which the writer is bound by some condition that forbids certain things or imposes a pattern.

Constraints are very common in poetry, which often requires the writer to use a particular verse form.

The most common constrained forms of writing are strict restrictions in vocabulary, e.g. Basic English, E-Prime, defining vocabulary for dictionaries, and other limited vocabularies for teaching English as a Second Language or to children. This is not generally what is meant by 'constrained writing' in the literary sense, which is motivated by more aesthetic concerns. For example:

• Lipogram, a letter (commonly e or o) is outlawed;
• Palindromes, such as the word "radar," read the same both ways;
• Alliteratives, in which every word must start with the same letter (or subset of letters; see Alphabetical Africa)
• Acrostics;
• Reverse-lipograms (each word must contain a particular letter);
• Ander-Saxon;
• Anagrams;
• Aleatory (where the reader supplies a random input);

The Oulipo group is a gathering of writers who use such techniques. The Outrapo group use theatrical constraints.

Gadsby is an English-language novel consisting of 50,100 words, none of which contain the letter "e".

In 1969, France's Georges Perec published La Disparition, a novel that did not include the letter "e". It was translated into English in 1995 by Gilbert Adair as "A Void".

In 2004, a new marvel from France: a novel, entirely without verbs: Le Train de Nulle Part ("The Train from Nowhere") by Michel Thaler. [1] (http://chronicle.com/free/2004/06/2004060205n.htm)

One famous constrained writing in the Chinese language is the Lion-Eating Poet in the Stone Den which consists of 92 characters, all with the sound shi.

External links

• "Constrained.org" (http://www.constrained.org) - a community based website for constrained literature and constrained stories
• "Poe, E.: Near a Raven" (http://users.aol.com/s6sj7gt/mikerav.htm) - a retelling of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven" in which the lengths of words are the values of the digits in pi