Oulipo

You are an artist. Congratulations. This means that, on a fairly regular basis, you must walk into your studio or sit at your desk and confront artistry’s oldest enemy: the blank canvas. How will you overcome such an enemy?

Cartes Noires is a creative writing exercise to help you craft the plot for a mystery novel in about 30 minutes using only a standard deck of playing cards and your imagination. With it, it is possible to make an elaborate, whodunnit story on the fly.

In college I experimented with a constrained writing system called the beau present. This is an experimental poem often prepared as a wedding gift. The names of the betrothed serve both as the title of the poem, and as a challenge to the writer.

Growing up I heard this story of two Welsh brothers, my ancestors, stowing away on a ship bound for the new continent. Some time later I decided to turn it into a sort of story using a constrained writing system called “the prisoner’s constraint”.