Constrained writing  

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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 forwards and backwards.
• 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).
• Anglish
• Anagrams
• Aleatory (where the reader supplies a random input).
• Univocalic poetry

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, French writer 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. Perec subsequently joked that he incorporated the “e”s not used in La Disparition in the novella Les Revenentes (1972), which uses no vowels other than “e.” Les Revenentes was translated into English by Ian Monk as The Exeter Text: Jewels, Secrets, Sex.

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]

Experimental Canadian poet Christian Bök’s Eunoia is a lipogram that uses only one vowel in each of its five chapters.

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. Another is the Thousand Character Classic in which all 1000 characters are unique without any repetition.

“Cadaeic Cadenza” is a short story by Mike Keith using the digits of pi as the length of words.

Never Again is a novel by Doug Nufer in which no word is used more than once.

Ella Minnow Pea is a book by Mark Dunn where certain letters become unusable throughout the novel.

Alphabetical Africa is a book by Walter Abish in which the first chapter only uses words that begin with the letter "a," while the second chapter incorporates the letter "b," and then "c," etc. Once the alphabet is finished, Abish takes letters away, one at a time, until the last chapter, leaving only words that begin with the letter "a."