Mr. Center's Wall: challenge

Showing posts with label challenge. Show all posts

Friday, April 8, 2011

Another Creative Writing Challenge -- 1.618...

if not the GR exactly, try Fibonacci

The Golden Ratio has fascinated me for quite some time (and though I'm not proud to admit it, I would be remiss if I did not: It was Dan Brown, via The Da Vinci Code, who introduced it me). About the same time I read The DVC, I was learning about the Oulipo. My thought then and still--simple enough in concept but in practice perhaps, at worst, impossible, and at best, monstrously impractical and inartistic--is to use this ratio as an Oulipian restriction for some type/piece of creative writing. Maybe write a poem where each stanza increases its letter count by increments of the ratio and maybe that poem could be about a conch shell (okay, that's stupid) or the dimensions of someone's beautiful face (cheesy to the extreme of bad Shakespeare imitations) or the evidence of God in nature (or lack thereof, depending on how you see things--as potentially good as bad) by its exquisite design. I don't know. I've tried many times and failed, miserably, on each attempt. Maybe I just need a good idea to build from.

What do you think?

Got an idea?

Can you do it?

Care to share?

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Google CAPTCHA, List #2

WRITING EXERCISE:

EASY -- Use ten of these words in a short story, poem, or other comment.

HARD -- Use all of these words in a short story or essay.

Though difficult, really, this list provides everything from character names, locations, vices, nouns, atmosphere, slang.... I am yet amazed at the variety and potential inherent meaning to so many of these "words."

Monday, February 28, 2011

MORE ACCIDENTAL "POETRY"

I had an extra half-hour of prep-time available today, and so thought I'd try the random poetry thing again, only this time with just one book: my The Annotated Alice, the Definitive Edition. Using only Carroll's words, and randomly generating page, line, and word numbers from which to start my word count for each "phrase."

Here are the parameters and their results, all randomly selected by the generator at random.org:

number of phrases (10-20): 12

words per phrase (3-5): 5

Wonderland (1&3/5); page (7-127); line (1-38); word (1-10)

Looking-Glass (2&4/5); page (133-274); line (1-38); word (1-10)

"Wasp in a Wig" (5/5); page (293-298); line (1-38); word (1-10)

	book	page	line	word	phrase
1	4: LG	175	4	5	body is a crust, and
2	2: LG	229	33	6	a fabulous monster! the Unicorn
3	4: LG	158	14	3	you! cried the Tiger-lily, waving
4	5: WW	297	29	10	Wasp went on: but the
5	1: WL	62	5	8	be listening, so she went
6	5: WW	294	28	8	spread out the paper on
7	2: LG	198	10	1	What is the matter? she said
8	4: LG	188	8	2	he ate as many as
9	3: WL	9	24	1	rabbit with either a waistcoat-pocket
10	1: WL	113	27	3	at the Hatter, who turned
11	3: WL	23	3	7	the great puzzle! And she
12	5: WW	283	23	3	only shook his shoulders, and

What are you able to come up with if we allow that these phrases be organized in any order, so long as the 5 words for each remain contiguous?

Sunday, February 27, 2011

Sunday Poetry XVII -- Accidental Poetry, and a "Writing" Challenge

Remember the "bookmash?" There are two approaches to "creating" one, the first a little less pure than the second: 1, you find a bunch of book titles on your shelves or at the library or wherever, and you arrange them in such a way that the titles create a poem of sorts; 2, you look up at a recently read pile of books or a short row of them on your shelves, and they have already, accidentally, formed a poem. I don't know about the other contributors, but I confess, I intentionally arranged my titles.

Not that this is bad, but what if the Fates had more to do with it?

I'm going to try something and write it up as I go, and maybe it will turn out to be poetry, but maybe not. (I am relying on the website www.random.org for my very numerological approach.) The question, of course, before and after the completion of this little experiment, is this:

Is there any value to accidental poetry, or other accidental art?

parameters	randomized result
Number of lines (3-15)	4
phrases per line (2-4)	3
words per phrase (3-5)	5

For each phrase, I’ll randomly assign a shelf number (1-7) from my fiction bookcases, a book number (1-25), a page number (1-200), a line number (1-25), and a word number from which to begin the phrase (1-15).

(I have no idea how this is going to turn out.)

phrase	shelf	book	page	line	word	phrase
1	4	14	22	16	3	“rush. a vortex” (Wicked – Macguire)
2	6	20	34	25	5	“richer tone was (Grapes of Wrath – Steinbeck)
3	2	3	28	15	4	“part of the” (In the Time of Butterflies – Alvarez)
4	5	24	36	16	15	“light patch on” (Nightjohn – Paulsen)
5	7	19	35	15	3	“father also loses” (Fatherhood – Cosby)
6	2	6	53	23	2	“monastery. Early boards” (Museum at Purgatory – Bantock)
7	3	11	24	2	10	“the other man” (The Mysterious Flam of Queen Loana – Eco)
8	1	5	168	14	9	“him the honor” (The Believer, March 05 – McSweeney’s)
9	4	12	3	11	4	“come here! – all” (Franz Kafka, Collected Stories)
10	4	19	79	24	9	“go, he said” (The Road – McCarthy)
11	2	2	95	13	2	“di iosafat qui (from Jehoshaphat above)” (The Inferno of Dante)
12	3	14	193	17	7	“drawer those nice” (On Literature – Eco)

The "Poem," unedited

by Accident

rush. a vortex richer tone was part of the

light patch on father also loses monastery. Early boards

the other man him the honor come here! – all

go, he said from Jehoshaphat above drawer those nice

The “Poem,” with altered punctuation and line breaks

by Accident, with Help

Rush: A vortex;

richer tone was part of

the light, patch-on father—

also loses.

Monastery, early boards,

the other man: Him

the honor come here!

“All go,” he said, from

Jehoshaphat above.

Drawer: those nice.

So, obviously, this isn't a great poem, though I'm surprised at and pleased with some of the phrase combinations. I bet if I do this a few more times, I might actually stumble upon something half-decent, or even, maybe, good.

CHALLENGE:

Do this yourself,

see what you get,

itinerary