Constrained writing is a literary technique in which the writer is bound by some condition that forbids certain things or imposes a pattern. A Literary technique or literary device may be used by works of literature in order to produce a specific effect on the reader. ...

Constraints are very common in poetry, which often requires the writer to use a particular verse form. The Chinese poem Quatrain on Heavenly Mountain by Emperor Gaozong (Song Dynasty) Poetry (from the Greek , poesis, making or creating) is a form of art in which language is used for its aesthetic qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its ostensible meaning. ...

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: A vocabulary is a set of words known to a person or other entity, or that are part of a specific language. ... Basic English is a constructed language with a small number of words created by Charles Kay Ogden and described in his book Basic English: A General Introduction with Rules and Grammar (1930). ... Dr. David Bourland coined the term E-Prime, short for English Prime, in the 1965 work A Linguistic Note: Writing in E-Prime to refer to the English language modified by prohibiting the use of the verb to be. E-Prime arose from Alfred Korzybskis General Semantics and his... A defining vocabulary is a published, stable, and culturally accepted core glossary specifically used by dictionary publishers to standardize their use of simple words to explain complex words, and culture-specific idioms or metaphors. ... It has been suggested that Teaching English as a Second Language be merged into this article or section. ... Kittens are often considered quite cute. ...

• 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);
• Anglish;
• 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. A lipogram (from Greek lipagrammatos, missing letter) is a kind of writing with constraints or word game consisting of writing paragraphs or longer works in which a particular letter or group of letters is missing, usually a common vowel, the most common in English being e (McArthur, 1992). ... A palindrome is a word, phrase, number or other sequence of units (such as a strand of DNA) that has the property of reading the same in either direction (the adjustment of punctuation and spaces between words is generally permitted). ... This long range RADAR antenna, known as ALTAIR, is used to detect and track space objects in conjunction with ABM testing at the Ronald Reagan Test Site on the Kwajalein atoll[1]. RADAR is a system that uses radio waves to detect, determine the direction and distance and/or speed... Alliteration is a stylistic device, or literary technique, in which successive words (more strictly, stressed syllables) begin with the same consonant sound or letter. ... Warning: the author of this article has not read the work in question. ... An acrostic (from the late Greek akróstichon, from ákros, extreme, and stíchos, verse) is a poem or other text written in an alphabetic script, in which the first letter, syllable or word of each verse, paragraph or other recurring feature in the text spells out another message. ... Anglish is a form of constrained writing in English in which words with Greek, Latin, and Romance roots are replaced by Germanic ones. ... An anagram (Greek ana- = back or again, and graphein = to write) is a type of word play, the result of rearranging the letters of a word or phrase to produce other words, using all the original letters exactly once. ... Aleatory (or aleatoric) means pertaining to luck, and derives from the Latin word alea, the rolling dice. ... Oulipo stands for Ouvroir de littérature potentielle, which translates roughly as workshop of potential literature. It is a loose gathering of French-speaking writers and mathematicians, and seeks to create works using constrained writing techniques. ... Theatrical constraints are various rules, either of taste or of law, that govern the production, staging, and content of stage plays in the theater. ...

Gadsby is an English-language novel consisting of 50,100 words, none of which contain the letter “e.” Gadsby is a novel by Ernest Vincent Wright, written around 1939. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ...

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. 1969 (MCMLXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1969 calendar). ... Image of artist Georges Perec (March 7, 1936 - March 3, 1982) was a 20th century French novelist, filmmaker and essayist, a member of the Oulipo group and considered by many to be one of the most important post-WWII authors. ... La disparition (1969, literally, The Disappearance) is a lipogrammatic novel, over 300 pages long, by French writer Georges Perec that was written without a single e in following Oulipo constraints. ... A novel (from French nouvelle Italian novella, new) is an extended, generally fictional narrative in prose. ... 1995 (MCMXCV) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Gilbert Adair (born December 29, 1944) is an author, film critic, and journalist who won the Scott Moncrieff Translation Prize for his book A Void which is a translation of the French book La Disparition by Georges Perec. ... La Disparition (literally, The Disappearance) is a 300 page French lipogrammatic novel, written in 1969 by Georges Perec, entirely without the letter e, following Oulipo constraints. ... 1972 (MCMLXXII) was a leap year starting on Saturday. ... Ian Monk (1960 -) is a British writer and translator. ...

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] 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... Le Train de Nulle Part (The Train from Nowhere) is a 233-page French novel, written in 2004 by a French doctor, under the pen name Michel Thaler. ... 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. ...

Experimental Canadian poet Christian Bök's Eunoia is a lipogram that uses only one vowel in each of its five chapters Christian Bök (born Book, 1966) is a Canadian experimental poet. ... Eunoia is a rarely used medical term referring to a state of normal mental health. ...

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. Chinese (written) language (pinyin: zhōngw n) written in Chinese characters The Chinese language (汉语/漢語, 华语/華語, or 中文; Pinyin: H nyǔ, Hu yǔ, or Zhōngw n) is a member of the Sino-Tibetan family of languages. ... This article or section uses Ruby annotation. ... The Thousand Character Classic (千字文) is a Chinese poem used as a primer for teaching Chinese characters to children. ...

Cadaeic Cadenza is a short book by Mike Keith using the digits of pi as the length of words. This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ...

External links

• Mike Keith’s World of Words & Numbers, a site with many pieces of constrained writing
• Eunoia by Christian Bök, a most contstrained work of literature. Each chapter is a lipogram containing only one vowel, and each chapter also must allude to the art of writing, describe a culinary banquet, a prurient debauch, a pastoral tableau, and a nautical voyage. The text must exhaust 98% of the lexicon for each vowel and minimize repitition.
• Poe, E.: Near a Raven, a retelling of Edgar Allan Poe’s The Raven in which the lengths of words are the values of the digits in pi
• uncyclopedia:Alliteration, an amazingly alliterated article, all adjectives and adverbs advancing 'A' again.
• 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).
• www.constrained.org, a recently-restored plethora of constrained-writing techniques and works.