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Exif data, by Terry Freedman. This is the metadata of a photograph.

Exif data, by Terry Freedman. This is the metadata of a photograph.

The most recent article I wrote for a client is characterised by 24 pieces of data:

  • Started: 05 June 2020 15:09

  • Completed: 06 June 2020 11:39

  • Total time: 1.17 hours

  • Total earned, if client approves: I never discuss money.

  • Number of words in title: 5

  • Number of words in topic: 2

  • Number of words in document: 1212

  • Number of characters: 6887

  • Number of paragraphs: 24

  • Number of sentences: 54

  • Number of subheadings: 8

  • Number of links: 1

  • Reading level: 11th-12th grade (approximately 16 to 18 year-olds)

  • Main style: Normal

  • Font: Arial

  • Font size: 11

  • Top heading style: Title

  • Title font: Arial

  • Title font size: 26

  • Subheading style: Heading 2

  • Heading 2 font: Arial

  • Heading 2 font size: 16

  • Number of illustrations: 1

  • Number of versions: 2

More Oulipo-related articles:

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Creative writing using constraints: a bit of a post-mortem
Creative writing using constraints: a bit of a post-mortem

I think evaluations are very odd devices to be honest. Someone once “marked me down” on her evaluation of a one day course I was running on the grounds that the traffic was terrible.

Creative writing using constraints (a forthcoming course)
Creative writing using constraints (a forthcoming course)

This course will look at examples of constraints created by some of the Oulipo’s main proponents, with work including the Hundred Thousand Billion Sonnets, the Metro Poem, and others. Course participants will have the opportunity to try out several techniques, and invent one or two of their own.

Escapism: the answer
Escapism: the answer

In Escapism: a 50 word prose poem I presented readers with a prose poem constructed in accordance with a constraint, and invited them to suggest what that constraint might be. Here’s the poem again, followed by the solution.

Escapism: a 50 word prose poem
Escapism: a 50 word prose poem

The following story has been written in accordance with a constraint, in true Oulipian style. The Oulipo is a writing movement based on constraints, such as omitting the use of a particular letter when composing a text.

Review: Oulipo and Modern Thought (Update)
Review: Oulipo and Modern Thought (Update)

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.

Review: Once upon a prime
Review: Once upon a prime

As someone who had little in the way of mathematical prowess at school, I initially opened Prime with some trepidation.

On this day: 27th December 2019 -- Preverbs
On this day: 27th December 2019 -- Preverbs

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?

Review of The Girl at the Tram Stop
Review of The Girl at the Tram Stop

On 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…

Review: Clouds like dust, and other poems, by N. Slake
Review: Clouds like dust, and other poems, by N. Slake

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.

Book reviews the wrong way round
Book reviews the wrong way round

This 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!

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