Oulipo
If your interest in the Oulipo goes beyond simply trying out their techniques, and you wish to learn about the context in which it was conceived and the developments in went through, you will find this book very useful.
Read MoreAs someone who had little in the way of mathematical prowess at school, I initially opened Prime with some trepidation.
Read More
Many people advocate free writing as a way of cutting through writer’s block. Well, it’s never worked for me, and it doesn’t seem logical anyway. If you can’t think of anything to write, how would allowing your mind to just generate stuff do any good?
Read MoreOn the surface, this would seem to be nothing more or less than an example of performance art presented as literature. However, there is much more to it than that because Johnson has introduced elements of randomisation…
Read More
Picture by Dall-e
Poetry lovers will recall the impact Slake' s first book made. "Tied up in Notts" was, at the time, not merely avant-garde but positively risque. The reason, of course, was Slake's cavalier approach to poetic conventions. For example, his 15 Line Sonnet caused a massive rift in the arts community.
Read MoreThis is the usual way of doing things. Someone writes a book, or a poem or whatever. Then (with a bit of luck) someone reviews it.
A fellow writer, Nathan, and I decided to do it the other way around. He wrote a review of something I hadn’t written yet. Then I wrote it!
Read MoreOulipo techniques are great for dispelling writer’s block, and generating new works.
Read More
Three reviews in one article, plus a couple of news announcements.
Read More
Image created by Dall-E for Terry Freedman
This post is a puzzle for you, and an experiment for me.
Read More
Rainham Marshes, by Terry Freedman
Can you spot the hidden theme word?
Read MoreBerkman has written an interesting and very academic examination of the links between maths and literature.
Read MoreThe Oulipo is a writing movement that uses constraints to produce ‘potential literature’.
Read More
Image by mohamed Hassan from Pixabay
This course is running tomorrow (18 June 2022), and I’ve added a few more exercises for people to try out.
Read More
On 17 June 2021 I wrote a round-up of my reviews of books about the Oulipo. Here’s a link to that article.
Read More
Squared notebook, by Terry Freedman
If, like me, you enjoy writing for the sake of it, and maybe even enjoy a secret life as a short story or novel writer, this might interest you.
Read More
Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash
A new course for creative writing.
Read MoreWhat can we learn from an apparently simple list, apart from the contents of the list?
Read More
This article is part of series I am writing called Experiments in Style. It is my version of Raymond Queneau’s Exercises in Style.
Read More
Christmas at Selfridges, by Terry Freedman
Unfortunately, my end-of-year message got a bit mangled, but I’m posting it here anyway. See if you can figure out what it is supposed to say.
Read More
The results are different depending on which dictionary you use; there is nothing to stop you cheating…
Read More
