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 cloze exercise is where particular words in a piece of text are blanked out. It’s used by teachers to help pupils learn vocabulary or terminology. The missing words in the following exercise have been placed at the bottom of the story. To make the exercise more challenging, the order of the answer words have been randomised. The number of dashes replacing each missing word is no indication of how many letters it contains.
The story
In the __________ of the __________ , I woke up (if you can call being __________ -conscious being awake), walked __________ towards the door to go to the __________ — and almost knocked myself out.The reason was that in the__________ states of entire __________ and semi- __________ I was facing in a different __________ from the one I thought I was facing. As a result, instead of walking through the __________ , I tried to walk through the __________ .The next few days brought __________ and __________ . After much prevarication I went to __________ and __________ , where I waited petrified among people for whom “social [18] __________ ” means not quite touching you, and who wore their __________ as a chin-warmer.An hour and a half later I emerged into the __________ , secure in the knowledge that I had nothing more serious than mild [21] __________ . I failed to do much __________ , but I was pleased to have __________ a further 17% of my __________ .
Missing words:
Accident wall door direction writing Emergency somnambulance nausea darkness headaches twin bathroom purposefully concussion twilight semi night masks distancing middle read book
This article is an example of Oulipo. I’ll be teaching 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. Look out for details on this website, or sign up to my free newsletter for writers (see below).
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