History Main / ConstrainedWriting

* Creator/JossWhedon wrote "Hush" in the fourth season of ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' as a [[TakeThatCritics rebuke to critics]] saying that his work was too dependent on his SignatureStyle of BuffySpeak.

* Around 1800 German poets were hotly debating whether or not one should write sonnets in German (it being a form originally created in Italian and according to some better suited to the Italian language). Johann Heinrich Voss, best known for translating ''Literature/TheIliad'' and ''Literature/TheOdyssey'' into German hexameters, was in the "against German sonnets" camp, but in order to show that he did this as a matter of choice, not because he was unable to write proper sonnets, he wrote the ''Klingsonate'' (roughly: "tinkle sonata") in 1808, which consists of three parodistic sonnets. In the first, each line consists of one syllable; in the second there are eight lines of three syllables each and six of two syllables; the third has lines of eleven syllables each and uses a lot of Italian words.

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[[folder:LiveActionTelevision]]

-->-- ''[[Blog/WhatIf What If]]'', [[http://what-if.xkcd.com/75/ Keyboard]]

* ''Blog/WhatIf'': After [[http://what-if.xkcd.com/75/ being asked what the most inconvenient word to type on an old cellphone would be]] (it's "nonmonogamous", which makes you hit the 6 key 16 times in a row), Randall has some fun with sentences that can only be typed with the left or the right hand (on a standard QWERTY keyboard). He also puts together some sentences that can only be typed using the home row or the top row. He comes up with some ''very'' [[ARareSentence rare sentences]], which can be seen in the above page quote.

The alternative name "Oulipo" is from a group of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oulipo French writers]] who were dedicated to this style of writing. Wiki/TheOtherWiki also [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constrained_writing has an article on the concept.]]

*** People often remark on Eminem's reduced lyricism on ''Encore'', but this was due in part to him challenging himself to [[{{Improv}} freestyle]] his work rather than use his usual method of [[RoomFullOfCrazy obsessively hashing out his lyrics on paper]]. (He was jealous of several contemporaries who could do this, in particular Music/JayZ and his signee Ca$his. Also, he was struggling to write due to being on a lot of drugs.)
*** Every line of Em's verse on "Never Enough" ends with the same rhyme couplet - ''ay''-''ee'' (as in ''crazy'').

*** The second verse in "Stay Wide Awake", which describes a rape, maintains an identical rhyme scheme and meter for 14 lines in order to reinforce the horror of the crime. (e.g. "''She's naked, see, no privacy, but I can see she wants me / so patient, see, I try to be, but gee, why does she taunt me?...''")

*** Eminem's idea behind using [[WhatTheHellIsThatAccent a mysterious accent]] to play Slim Shady [[VocalEvolution on this album]] was to force him out of his comfort zone when writing rhymes - it prevented him from using go-to rhymes that would work in his own accent, but also allowed him to [[AccentDepundent rhyme things that he normally wouldn't be able to]]. It also works as a ShiftingVoiceOfMadness for the [[EraSpecificPersonality incarnation]] of the character.
*** Eminem also went out of his way to choose the most rhythmically weird beats he was offered, and to try and match it perfectly. Even the album's [[BlackSheepHit comedy single]] "We Made You" is rhythmically eccentric, and "Underground" slides into UncommonTime.

** Eminem's idea behind using [[WhatTheHellIsThatAccent a mysterious accent]] to play Slim Shady on ''Relapse'' was to force him out of his comfort zone when writing rhymes - it prevented him from using go-to rhymes that would work in his own accent, but also allowed him to [[AccentDepundent rhyme things that he normally wouldn't be able to]]. It also works as a ShiftingVoiceOfMadness for the [[EraSpecificPersonality incarnation]] of the character.

** Eminem's idea behind using [[WhatTheHellIsThatAccent a mysterious accent]] to play Slim Shady on ''Relapse'' was to force him out of his comfort zone when writing rhymes - it prevented him from using go-to rhymes that would work in his own accent, but also allowed him to [[AccentDepundent rhyme things that he normally wouldn't be able to]]. It also works as a ShiftingVoiceOfMadness for the [[EraSpecificCharacterization incarnation]] of the character.

** Eminem's idea behind using [[WhatTheHellIsThatAccent a mysterious accent]] to play Slim Shady on ''Relapse'' was to force him out of his comfort zone when writing rhymes - it prevented him from using go-to rhymes that would work in his own accent, but also allowed him to [[AccentDepundent rhyme things that he normally wouldn't be able to]]. It also works as a ShiftingVoiceOfMadness for the [[EraSpecificCharacterisation incarnation]] of the character.

** When Homer [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS11E3GuessWhosComingToCriticizeDinner becomes a food critic]], he writes a review without using the letter E. That's because the E key on his typewriter is broken.
** [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS5E18BurnsHeir Mr Burns tells Lenny that he will be fired unless he is able to explain why he shouldn't be without using the letter E]].

The alternative name "{{Oulipo}}" is from a group of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oulipo French writers]] who were dedicated to this style of writing. Wiki/TheOtherWiki also [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constrained_writing has an article on the concept.]]

* ''VideoGame/AdVerbum'' is an InteractiveFiction game built around ConstrainedWriting, as the protagonist explores a wizard's mansion where each room has some kind of linguistic constraint that is reflected in the description of the room -- and in the commands that the game will accept within that room. All the rooms on the initial floor are constrained to be alliterative. Rooms on higher floors have more elaborate constraints, such as that old favorite, "Abandon all fifth orthographic glyphs". As a ShoutOut, one of the rooms is a library whose contents include a readable copy of Robert Pinsky's constrained poem "ABC" and an empty dust-jacket from a disappeared copy of ''Literature/AVoid''.