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Is it really two years since I first published this? Hopefully, it has stood the test of time.
One of the things I’ve been trying out is reworking a piece of text into a completely different style. A full exposition and explanation are given here: Experimenting with styles.
This is a transcript of a conversation between Fred Terryman and myself. It’s been lightly edited, with the pauses taken out for ease of reading.
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Shoredticth in black and white, by Terry Freedman
The standard advice for writers who are feeling uninspired or blocked is to allow your mind to wander where it will or to just start writing aimlessly to see what happens. Therefore to suggest the opposite approach, that of imposing some constraints on your thinking, seems completely counterintuitive.
Read More“Good afternoon”, said the doctor. “What seems to be the trouble?”
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One of the things I’ve been trying out is reworking a piece of text into a completely different style. This one was written in the style of Borges.
Read MoreThis is a transcript of a conversation between Fred Terryman and myself. It’s been lightly edited, with the pauses taken out for ease of reading.
Read MoreOne of the things I’ve been trying out is reworking a piece of text into a completely different style. In today’s experiment I’d like to tell the story in the style of a review of an art exhibition.
Read MoreHolmes and I were in our lodgings in Baker Street. He was drawing out a melancholy tune on his violin, whilst I was reading the latest edition of The Lancet. The silence was unexpectedly broken by the ringing of the bell.
Read MoreI clambered out of the four poster, but at altogether the wrong angle, so blowed if I didn't go careering straight into the wall. I tell you. I tried to ignore it and dragoon the well-known Freedman stiff upper lip into service, but the old noggin was having none of it.
Read MoreA good way of honing your writing skills is to rewrite a simple story in different styles. That’s what I’ve been up to over on my Eclecticism newsletter. I post a new style every Sunday, and often on the following Friday I explain how I did it, what the challenges were, or the literary devices I employed.
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Terrified, by Dall-e
Someone challenged me to write a graphic novel of my short story A Bang on the Head, which forms the basis of my experiments in style, à la Queneau. Well, I’m useless at drawing the kind of comics I like to read, so I thought I’d enlist the help of AI. I used this prompt, mistakenly, with ChatGPT…
Read MoreLitotes, pronounced lie-toe-tease, is a literary technique whereby you express things in a negative formulation. What would it look like if a whole story was written in this fashion?
By the way, if you’ve been thinking of taking out a premium subscription for my Eclecticism newsletter, the mega deal of 20% off forever ends tomorrow, 22nd August 2023.
Read MoreI’ve been taking a short and very bland story and rewriting it in different styles. This time I’ve chosen cockney (defined as someone born within the sound of Bow bells, in other words a true working class Londoner) rhyming slang.
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This article is part of series I am writing called Experiments in Style. It is my version of Raymond Queneau’s Exercises in Style.
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The results are different depending on which dictionary you use; there is nothing to stop you cheating…
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Although the result is nonsensical, I think it has a musical quality of its own.
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In this version, I’ve decided to pass the story over to you.
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In the middle of the night, I will wake up (if you can call being semi-conscious being awake), walk purposefully towards the door to go to the bathroom — and almost knock myself out.
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This article is part of series I am writing called Experiments in Style. It is my version of Raymond Queneau’s Exercises in Style (Amazon affiliate link), in which the author takes a very mundane incident and reworks it in various ways. A graphic version of the same thing is Matt Madden’s 99 Ways to tell a story (ditto). I think it’s quite interesting to see how a change in style can dramatically alter the feel of a piece. My ‘experiments’ are based on the article I wrote called A bang on the head.
A bang on the head, by Terry Freedman
This series of articles is an example of Oulipo. I’ll be taking a very short course called Writing the Oulipo: a taster, on 19 June 2021. As it’s name implies, this is an introductory class, and lasts for just two and a half hours. If you’re interested in learning a few techniques to expand your writing ideas, along with suggestions for further reading, then sign up. It will take place online, so from a geographical point of view it doesn’t matter where in the world you are. Details here: Writing the Oulipo: A Taster.
I failed to do much __________ , but I was pleased to have __________ a further 17% of my __________
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