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Constrained writing is a
literary technique A narrative technique (known for literary fictional narratives as a literary technique, literary device, or fictional device) is any of several specific methods the creator of a narrative uses to convey what they want —in other words, a stra ...
in which the writer is bound by some condition that forbids certain things or imposes a pattern. Constraints are very common in
poetry Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings i ...
, which often requires the writer to use a particular verse form.


Description

Constraints on writing are common and can serve a variety of purposes. For example, a text may place restrictions on its
vocabulary A vocabulary is a set of familiar words within a person's language. A vocabulary, usually developed with age, serves as a useful and fundamental tool for communication and acquiring knowledge. Acquiring an extensive vocabulary is one of the la ...
, e.g.
Basic English Basic English (British American Scientific International and Commercial English) is an English-based controlled language created by the linguist and philosopher Charles Kay Ogden as an international auxiliary language, and as an aid for teach ...
, copula-free text,
defining vocabulary A defining vocabulary is a list of words used by lexicographers to write dictionary definitions. The underlying principle goes back to Samuel Johnson's notion that words should be defined using 'terms less abstruse than that which is to be explai ...
for dictionaries, and other limited vocabularies for teaching
English as a second language English as a second or foreign language is the use of English by speakers with different native languages. Language education for people learning English may be known as English as a second language (ESL), English as a foreign language (EF ...
or to children. In poetry, formal constraints abound in both mainstream and experimental work. Familiar elements of poetry like
rhyme A rhyme is a repetition of similar sounds (usually, the exact same phonemes) in the final stressed syllables and any following syllables of two or more words. Most often, this kind of perfect rhyming is consciously used for a musical or aesthetic ...
and
meter The metre (British spelling) or meter (American spelling; see spelling differences) (from the French unit , from the Greek noun , "measure"), symbol m, is the primary unit of length in the International System of Units (SI), though its prefi ...
are often applied as constraints. Well-established verse forms like the
sonnet A sonnet is a poetic form that originated in the poetry composed at the Court of the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II in the Sicilian city of Palermo. The 13th-century poet and notary Giacomo da Lentini is credited with the sonnet's invention, ...
,
sestina A sestina (, from ''sesto'', sixth; Old Occitan: ''cledisat'' ; also known as ''sestine'', ''sextine'', ''sextain'') is a fixed verse, fixed verse form consisting of six stanzas of six lines each, normally followed by a three-line envoi. The wor ...
,
villanelle A villanelle, also known as villanesque,Kastner 1903 p. 279 is a nineteen-line poetic form consisting of five tercets followed by a quatrain. There are two refrains and two repeating rhymes, with the first and third line of the first tercet rep ...
,
limerick Limerick ( ; ga, Luimneach ) is a western city in Ireland situated within County Limerick. It is in the province of Munster and is located in the Mid-West which comprises part of the Southern Region. With a population of 94,192 at the 2016 ...
, and
haiku is a type of short form poetry originally from Japan. Traditional Japanese haiku consist of three phrases that contain a ''kireji'', or "cutting word", 17 '' on'' (phonetic units similar to syllables) in a 5, 7, 5 pattern, and a ''kigo'', or se ...
are variously constrained by meter, rhyme, repetition, length, and other characteristics. Outside of established traditions, particularly in the
avant-garde The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical ...
, writers have produced a variety of work under more severe constraints; this is often what the term "constrained writing" is specifically applied to. For example: * Reverse-lipograms: each word must contain a particular letter. * Univocalic poetry, using only one vowel. * Mandated vocabulary, where the writer must include specific words (for example, Quadrivial Quandary solicits individual sentences containing all four words in a daily selection). * Bilingual homophonous poetry, where the poem makes sense in two different languages at the same time, constituting two simultaneous homophonous poems. *
Alliterative Alliteration is the conspicuous repetition of initial consonant sounds of nearby words in a phrase, often used as a literary device. A familiar example is "Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers". Alliteration is used poetically in various ...
s or
tautogram A tautogram (Greek: ''tauto gramma'', "same letter") is a text in which all words start with the same letter. Historically, tautograms were mostly poetical forms. The difference between a tautogram and alliteration is that tautograms are a written ...
s, in which every word must start with the same letter (or subset of letters; see ''
Alphabetical Africa ''Alphabetical Africa'' is a constrained writing experiment by Walter Abish. It is written in the form of a novel. Writing in '' Esquire'', Harold Bloom put it on a list of 20th century novels that will endure. A paperback edition was issued i ...
''). *
Lipogram A lipogram (from grc, λειπογράμματος, ''leipográmmatos'', "leaving out a letter") is a kind of constrained writing or word game consisting of writing paragraphs or longer works in which a particular letter or group of letters is a ...
: a letter (commonly e or o) is outlawed. *
Acrostic An acrostic is a poem or other word composition in which the ''first'' letter (or syllable, or word) of each new line (or paragraph, or other recurring feature in the text) spells out a word, message or the alphabet. The term comes from the Fre ...
s: first letter of each word/sentence/paragraph forms a word or sentence. *
Abecedarius An abecedarius (also abecedary and abecedarian) is a special type of acrostic in which the first letter of every word, strophe or verse follows the order of the letters in the alphabet. Etymology "Abecedarius" (or "abecedarium") is a Medieval La ...
: first letter of each word/verse/section goes through the alphabet. *
Palindrome A palindrome is a word, number, phrase, or other sequence of symbols that reads the same backwards as forwards, such as the words ''madam'' or ''racecar'', the date and time ''11/11/11 11:11,'' and the sentence: "A man, a plan, a canal – Panam ...
s, such as the word "
radar Radar is a detection system that uses radio waves to determine the distance (''ranging''), angle, and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, w ...
", read the same forwards and backwards. * Anglish, favouring Anglo-Saxon words over Greek and Roman/Latin words. *
Pilish Pilish is a style of constrained writing in which the lengths of consecutive words match the digits of the number Pi, (pi). The shortest example is any three-letter word, such as "pie", but many longer examples have been constructed, including se ...
, where the lengths of consecutive words match the digits of the number π. *
Anagram An anagram is a word or phrase formed by rearranging the letters of a different word or phrase, typically using all the original letters exactly once. For example, the word ''anagram'' itself can be rearranged into ''nag a ram'', also the word ...
s, words or sentences formed by rearranging the letters of another. * Limitations in punctuation, such as Peter Carey's book ''
True History of the Kelly Gang ''True History of the Kelly Gang'' is a novel by Australian writer Peter Carey, based loosely on the history of the Kelly Gang. It was first published in Brisbane by the University of Queensland Press in 2000. It won the 2001 Booker Prize an ...
'', which features no
comma The comma is a punctuation mark that appears in several variants in different languages. It has the same shape as an apostrophe or single closing quotation mark () in many typefaces, but it differs from them in being placed on the baseline ...
s. * One syllable article, a form unique to Chinese literature, using many characters all of which are
homophone A homophone () is a word that is pronounced the same (to varying extent) as another word but differs in meaning. A ''homophone'' may also differ in spelling. The two words may be spelled the same, for example ''rose'' (flower) and ''rose'' (p ...
s; the result looks sensible as writing but is very confusing when read aloud. * Chaterism, where the length of words in a phrase or sentence increases or decreases in a uniform, mathematical way. *
Aleatory Aleatoricism or aleatorism, the noun associated with the adjectival aleatory and aleatoric, is a term popularised by the musical composer Pierre Boulez, but also Witold Lutosławski and Franco Evangelisti, for compositions resulting from "actio ...
, where the reader supplies a random input. *
Erasure Erasure () is an English synth-pop duo formed in London in 1985, consisting of lead vocalist and songwriter Andy Bell with songwriter, producer and keyboardist Vince Clarke, previously known as co-founder of the band Depeche Mode and a membe ...
, which involves erasing words from an existing text and framing the result on the page as a poem. The
Oulipo Oulipo (, short for french: Ouvroir de littérature potentielle; roughly translated: ''"workshop of potential literature"'', stylized ''OuLiPo'') is a loose gathering of (mainly) French-speaking writers and mathematicians who seek to create works ...
group is a gathering of writers who use such techniques. The
Outrapo Outrapo stands for "Ouvroir de tragicomédie potentielle", which translates roughly as "workshop of potential tragicomedy". It was founded in London, in 1991, and it seeks to mine the potentialities of stage performance, using new or preexistent c ...
group uses
theatrical constraints Theatrical constraints are various rules, either of taste or of law, that govern the production, staging, and content of stage plays in the theater. Whether imposed externally, by virtue of monopoly franchises or censorship laws, or whether im ...
. There are a number of constrained writing forms that are restricted by length, including: * Six-Word Memoirs: 6 words *
Haiku is a type of short form poetry originally from Japan. Traditional Japanese haiku consist of three phrases that contain a ''kireji'', or "cutting word", 17 '' on'' (phonetic units similar to syllables) in a 5, 7, 5 pattern, and a ''kigo'', or se ...
: ~ 3 lines (5–7–5 syllables or 2–3–2 beats recommended.) *
Minisaga A minisaga, mini saga or mini-saga is a short story based on a long story. It should contain exactly 50 words, plus a title of up to 15 characters. However, the title requirement is not always enforced and sometimes eliminated altogether. Minisagas ...
: 50 words, +15 for title *
Drabble A drabble is a short work of fiction of precisely one hundred words in length."Winners ...
: 100 words * Twiction: espoused as a specifically constrained form of
microfiction Flash fiction is a fictional work of extreme brevity that still offers character and plot development. Identified varieties, many of them defined by word count, include the six-word story; the 280-character story (also known as " twitterature"); ...
where a story or poem is exactly 140 characters long. *
Sijo ''Sijo'' () is a Korean traditional poetic form that emerged in the Goryeo period, flourished during the Joseon Dynasty, and is still written today. Bucolic, metaphysical, and cosmological themes are often explored. The three lines average 14 ...
: three lines average 14–16 syllables, for a total of 44–46: theme (3, 4,4,4); elaboration (3,4,4,4); counter-theme (3,5) and completion (4,3).


Examples

*
Ernest Vincent Wright Ernest Vincent Wright (1872October 7, 1939) was an American author known for his book '' Gadsby'', a 50,000-word novel which, except for the introduction and a note at the end, did not use the letter "e". Biography The biographical details of hi ...
's '' Gadsby'' (1939) is an English-language novel consisting of 50,000 words, none of which contain the letter "e". * In 1969, French writer
Georges Perec Georges Perec (; 7 March 1936 – 3 March 1982) was a French novelist, filmmaker, documentalist, and essayist. He was a member of the Oulipo group. His father died as a soldier early in the Second World War and his mother was killed in the Holoc ...
published ''
La Disparition ''A Void'', translated from the original French ( "The Disappearance"), is a 300-page French lipogrammatic novel, written in 1969 by Georges Perec, entirely without using the letter '' e'', following Oulipo constraints. Translations It was t ...
'', a novel that did not include the letter "e". It was translated into English in 1995 by
Gilbert Adair Gilbert Adair (29 December 19448 December 2011) was a Scottish novelist, poet, film critic, and journalist.Stuart Jeffries and Ronald BerganObituary: Gilbert Adair ''The Guardian'', 9 December 2011. He was critically most famous for the "fiend ...
. Perec subsequently joked that he incorporated the "e"s not used into ''La Disparition'' in the novella ' (1972), which uses no vowels other than "e". ''Les Revenentes'' was translated into English by
Ian Monk Ian Monk (born 1960) is a British writer and translator, based in Paris, France.Ian Monk
Oulipo website (retrieved 29 de ...
as ''The Exeter Text: Jewels, Secrets, Sex''. *
Perec Perec is a surname of several French people, including: *Georges Perec, (1936–1982), French novelist of Polish-Jewish origin (the surname is the Polish spelling of the Biblical Hebrew name Peretz) *Marie-José Pérec Marie-José Pérec (born 9 ...
also wrote ''
Life A User's Manual ''Life A User's Manual'' (the original title is ''La Vie mode d'emploi'') is Georges Perec's most famous novel, published in 1978, first translated into English by David Bellos in 1987. Its title page describes it as "novels", in the plural, the ...
'' using the
Knight's Tour A knight's tour is a sequence of moves of a knight on a chessboard such that the knight visits every square exactly once. If the knight ends on a square that is one knight's move from the beginning square (so that it could tour the board again im ...
method of construction. The book is set in a fictional Parisian block of flats, where Perec devises the elevation of the building as a 10×10 grid: 10 storeys, including basements and attics and 10 rooms across, including 2 for the stairwell. Each room is assigned to a chapter, and the order of the chapters is given by the knight's moves on the grid. * Several of the
Psalms The Book of Psalms ( or ; he, תְּהִלִּים, , lit. "praises"), also known as the Psalms, or the Psalter, is the first book of the ("Writings"), the third section of the Tanakh, and a book of the Old Testament. The title is derived ...
are abecedarian in the Hebrew alphabet * The 2004 French novel ''
Le Train de Nulle Part {{More citations needed, date=October 2010 ''Le Train de Nulle Part'' (''The Train from Nowhere'') is a 233-page French novel, written in 2004 by a French doctor of letters, Michel Dansel, under the pen name Michel Thaler. Notable as an exampl ...
'' (''The Train from Nowhere'') by
Michel Thaler {{More citations needed, date=October 2010 ''Le Train de Nulle Part'' (''The Train from Nowhere'') is a 233-page French language, French novel, written in 2004 by a French doctor of letters, Michel Dansel, under the pen name Michel Thaler. Notabl ...
was written entirely without
verb A verb () is a word (part of speech) that in syntax generally conveys an action (''bring'', ''read'', ''walk'', ''run'', ''learn''), an occurrence (''happen'', ''become''), or a state of being (''be'', ''exist'', ''stand''). In the usual descri ...
s.
A New Novel, No Verbs, in France, No Less
' by Scott McLemee, The Chronicle of Higher Education, June 2, 2004.
* ''let me tell you'' (2008), a novel by the Welsh writer Paul Griffiths, uses only the words allotted to Ophelia in ''
Hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...
''. * Experimental Canadian poet
Christian Bök Christian Bök, FRSC (; born August 10, 1966 in Toronto, Canada) is a Canadian poet known for unusual and experimental works. He is the author of '' Eunoia'', which won the Canadian Griffin Poetry Prize. Life and work He was born "Christian Bo ...
's ''
Eunoia In rhetoric, ''eunoia'' ( grc, εὔνοιᾰ, eúnoia, well mind; beautiful thinking) is the good will speakers cultivate between themselves and their audiences, a condition of receptivity. In Book VIII of the '' Nicomachean Ethics'', Aristot ...
'' is a
univocalic A univocalic is a type of antilipogrammatic constrained writing that uses only a single vowel, in English "A", "E", "I", "O", or "U", and no others. Examples *One of the best-known univocalic poems was written by C.C. Bombaugh in 1890 using "O". ...
that uses only one vowel in each of its five chapters. * One famous piece of constrained writing in the
Chinese language Chinese (, especially when referring to written Chinese) is a group of languages spoken natively by the ethnic Han Chinese majority and many minority ethnic groups in Greater China. About 1.3 billion people (or approximately 16% of the wor ...
is ''The
Lion-Eating Poet in the Stone Den "Lion-Eating Poet in the Stone Den" () is a short narrative poem written in Classical Chinese that is composed of about 94 characters (depending on the specific version) in which every word is pronounced ''shi'' () when read in present-day Stan ...
'' which consists of 92 characters, all with the sound ''shi''. Another is the ''
Thousand Character Classic The ''Thousand Character Classic'' (), also known as the ''Thousand Character Text'', is a Chinese poem that has been used as a primer for teaching Chinese characters to children from the sixth century onward. It contains exactly one thousand c ...
'' in which all 1000 characters are unique without any repetition. * "
Cadaeic Cadenza "Cadaeic Cadenza" is a 1996 short story by Mike Keith. It is an example of constrained writing, a story with restrictions on how it can be written. It is also one of the most prodigious examples of piphilology, being written in " pilish". The w ...
" is a short story by Mike Keith using the first 3835 digits of pi to determine the length of words. ''Not A Wake'' is a book using the same constraint based on the first 10,000 digits. * ''
Never Again "Never again" is a phrase or slogan which is associated with the lessons of the Holocaust and other genocides. The phrase may originate from a 1927 poem by Yitzhak Lamdan which stated "Never again shall Masada fall!" In the context of genocide ...
'' is a novel by Doug Nufer in which no word is used more than once. * ''
Ella Minnow Pea ''Ella Minnow Pea'' is a 2001 novel by Mark Dunn. The full title of the hardcover version is ''Ella Minnow Pea: a progressively lipogrammatic epistolary fable'', while the paperback version is titled ''Ella Minnow Pea: A Novel in Letters'' or '' ...
'' is a book by
Mark Dunn Mark Dunn (born July 12, 1956 in Memphis, Tennessee) is an American author and playwright. He studied film at Memphis State University (now the University of Memphis) followed by post-graduate work in screenwriting at the University of Texas at ...
where certain letters become unusable throughout the novel. * ''
Alphabetical Africa ''Alphabetical Africa'' is a constrained writing experiment by Walter Abish. It is written in the form of a novel. Writing in '' Esquire'', Harold Bloom put it on a list of 20th century novels that will endure. A paperback edition was issued i ...
'' is a book by
Walter Abish Walter Abish (December 24, 1931 – May 28, 2022) was an Austrian-born American author of experimental novels and short stories. He was conferred the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction in 1981 and was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship six years later. ...
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". * Mary Godolphin wrote versions of ''Robinson Crusoe'', ''Aesop's Fables'', ''The Swiss Family Robinson'', and other books using only monosyllabic words. *
Theodor Geisel Theodor Seuss Geisel (;"Seuss"
''
Green Eggs and Ham ''Green Eggs and Ham'' is a children's book by Dr. Seuss, first published on August 12, 1960. As of 2019, the book has sold 8 million copies worldwide. The story has appeared in several adaptations, starting with 1973's ''Dr. Seuss on the Loose ...
'' using only 50 different words on a 50 dollar bet with
Bennett Cerf Bennett Alfred Cerf (May 25, 1898 – August 27, 1971) was an American writer, publisher, and co-founder of the American publishing firm Random House. Cerf was also known for his own compilations of jokes and puns, for regular personal appearanc ...
.Urban Legends Reference Pages: Language (Green Eggs and Ham)
''
Snopes ''Snopes'' , formerly known as the ''Urban Legends Reference Pages'', is a Fact checking, fact-checking website. It has been described as a "well-regarded reference for sorting out myths and rumors" on the Internet. The site has also been see ...
,'' Accessed on 26 November 2006.
* '' The Gates of Paradise'' is a book by
Jerzy Andrzejewski Jerzy Andrzejewski (; 19 August 1909 – 19 April 1983) was a prolific Polish writer. His works confront controversial moral issues such as betrayal, the Jews and Auschwitz in the wartime. His novels, ''Ashes and Diamonds'' (about the immediate ...
where the whole text is just two sentences, one of which is very long. * '' Zero Degree'' is a postmodern lipogrammatic novel written in 1998 by
Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, nativ ...
author Charu Nivedita, later translated into Malayalam and English. The Tamil words 'oru' and 'ondru' (the English equivalents are 'a', 'an' and 'one') have not been mentioned anywhere in the novel, except one chapter. Keeping with the numerological theme of Zero Degree, the only numbers expressed in either words or symbols are numerologically equivalent to nine (with the exception of two chapters). This Oulipian ban includes the very common word one. Many sections of the book are written entirely without punctuation, or using only periods. * In the book A Gun Is Not Polite, author Jonathan Ruffian rearranges given sentences containing the word "gun" as found on the internet into micro fiction. * Uruguayan musician, comedian and writer
Leo Maslíah Leo Maslíah (born 1954) is a Uruguayan musician, humorist and writer. Born in 1954 in Montevideo, he started writing and composing in 1978, usually with a touch of humour. After a considerable success in the Uruguayan ''underground'' movement ...
's 1999 novel ''Líneas'' (''Lines'') is written entirely with paragraphs comprising a single sentence. * A novel ''Gorm, Son of Hardecnut'' (''Горм, сын Хёрдакнута'')Gorm, son of Hardecnut by Peter Vorobieff
Accessed on 16 April 2013.
(see
Gorm the Old Gorm the Old ( da, Gorm den Gamle; non, Gormr gamli; la, Gormus Senex), also called Gorm the Languid ( da, Gorm Løge, Gorm den Dvaske), was ruler of Denmark, reigning from to his death or a few years later.Lund, N. (2020), p. 147
) by Peter Vorobieff is written in Russian without any words borrowed from English, French, Latin, or modern German since the 17th century. (Cf. Anglish.) The book also never uses many common words, including "human", "please", and "thank you". * Examples of
erasure Erasure () is an English synth-pop duo formed in London in 1985, consisting of lead vocalist and songwriter Andy Bell with songwriter, producer and keyboardist Vince Clarke, previously known as co-founder of the band Depeche Mode and a membe ...
include Tom Phillips's ''
A Humument ''A Humument: A treated Victorian novel'' is an altered book by British artist Tom Phillips, published in its first edition in 1970 and completed in 2016. It is a piece of art created over W H Mallock's 1892 novel ''A Human Document'' whose tit ...
'' (1970);
Mary Ruefle Mary Ruefle (born 1952) is an American poet, essayist, and professor. She has published many collections of poetry, the most recent of which, ''Dunce'' (Wave Books, 2019), was longlisted for the National Book Award in Poetry and was a finalist f ...
's ''A Little White Shadow'' (2006), an erasure of the Victorian novel of the same name by
Emily Malbone Morgan Emily Malbone Morgan (December 10, 1862 – February 27, 1937) was a prominent social and religious leader in the Episcopal Church in the United States who helped found the Society of the Companions of the Holy Cross as well as the Colonel Danie ...
; Janet Holmes's ''The ms of my kin'' (2009), an erasure of poetry by
Emily Dickinson Emily Elizabeth Dickinson (December 10, 1830 – May 15, 1886) was an American poet. Little-known during her life, she has since been regarded as one of the most important figures in American poetry. Dickinson was born in Amherst, Massach ...
; Matthea Harvey's ''Of Lamb'' (2011), an erasure of a biography of
Charles Lamb Charles Lamb (10 February 1775 – 27 December 1834) was an English essayist, poet, and antiquarian, best known for his ''Essays of Elia'' and for the children's book ''Tales from Shakespeare'', co-authored with his sister, Mary Lamb (1764–18 ...

''ALL KINDS OF FUR''Margaret Yocom's
erasure of a controversial tale from the Brothers Grimm (2018); and many more. * Anna Rabinowitz's ''Darkling'' (2001) is a book-length acrostic about the
Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...
. * The 17th-century
Odia Odia, also spelled Oriya or Odiya, may refer to: * Odia people in Odisha, India * Odia language, an Indian language, belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European language family * Odia alphabet, a writing system used for the Odia languag ...
poet
Upendra Bhanja ''Kabi Samrata'' Upendra Bhanja () was a 17th-century Odia poet-composer of classical Odissi music.Mansingha, Mayadhar: ''History of Oriya Literature'': Publisher, Sahitya Akademi, Delhi He is most known for his Odissi songs and kabyas written i ...
wrote multiple epics (Satisha Bilasa, Kala Kautuka, Baidehisha Bilasha, etc.) with the same syllable at the beginning of each sentence.{{clarify, date=April 2020


See also

*
Controlled natural language Controlled natural languages (CNLs) are subsets of natural languages that are obtained by restricting the grammar and vocabulary in order to reduce or eliminate ambiguity and complexity. Traditionally, controlled languages fall into two major typ ...
*
Letter game Letter, letters, or literature may refer to: Characters typeface * Letter (alphabet), a character representing one or more of the sounds used in speech; any of the symbols of an alphabet. * Letterform, the graphic form of a letter of the alphabe ...
*
Oulipo Oulipo (, short for french: Ouvroir de littérature potentielle; roughly translated: ''"workshop of potential literature"'', stylized ''OuLiPo'') is a loose gathering of (mainly) French-speaking writers and mathematicians who seek to create works ...
*
Storytelling game A storytelling game is a game where multiple players collaborate on telling a spontaneous story. Usually, each player takes care of one or more characters in the developing story. Some games in the tradition of role-playing games require one pa ...


References


External links


Cadaeic.net
site with many pieces of constrained writing by Mike Keith.
''Eunoia'' by Christian Bök

Mike Schertzer
in ''Cipher and Poverty (The Book of Nothing)'', created a three-level acronymic poem. Beginning with a name a verse was created for which the name was the acronym. This verse was then expanded, and then again. The final verse is 224 words long (which means the previous verse, its corresponding acronym, contains 224 letters).
Spineless Books
an independent publishing house dedicated to constrained literature.
Quadrivial Quandary
a community website that challenges participants to write a single sentence containing all four words in a daily selection Word games fr:Littérature expérimentale#Littérature à contraintes