Writing by Earle Martin - constrained pieces

2002-05-20

This is an experiment. I want to see how easy it is to write two hundred words on a given topic. At the moment, the topic that I've given myself is "Writing two hundred words on a given topic". It doesn't seem that difficult; all I have to do is relax and let the words spill out onto the screen through the action of my fingers on the keyboard. I wonder how difficult it is to write professionally? After all, that's the same sort of thing, only on a larger scale - say, fifty or sixty thousand words on a particular topic. It can be true (non-fiction), or false (fiction) - it has to start and finish and have a middle. Depending on your style, or the way you're styling your writing in a particular case, you can do it in different ways. I guess you just have to have a topic that you know you can write that much about. I guess you need a plan, which certainly isn't the case at the moment - I really don't know how this is going to turn out. It's totally random. It's not being aided by the bad music I can hear leaking through from outside my headphones. You should probably have a carefully arranged space to write in, an idealized area for contemplation and transliteration.

It seems I've passed two hundred already. That was easier than I thought.

2002-04-25

funky party
music plays
crowd rocks
happy woman
raves madly

bloke spies
gives smile
tries dance
moves badly
woman smirk

bloke point 
woman looks 
spies large
blimp above
looks again

tired bloke
isn't there

2002-04-22

considering
 dangerous
  thought
   leads
    out
     I
    can
   sense
  freedom
 beckoning
cryptically

2002-04-21

This is writing with a particular point. That said, it's difficult to bring such words to light, if you can't say any with a particular part (fifth in list of Latin word parts, a, b, c, d...). I would try and talk about my day, but it's difficult; and I'm fairly lazy right now. I think I will try various writing goals as days pass, working up to a crazy froth of words, and a good quantity, not just an absurdly small snatch of it.

2002-04-20 (2)

I
am
now
into
style
harder
complex
thoughts
demanding
increasing
terminology
lexicography
typographic
complexity
absurdity
nonsense
phrases
shrink
down
now
to
0

2002-04-20 (1)

This is a block of text, in
which all the lines are the
same number of letters (and
other symbols) long. It has
no real purpose except that
it displays a simple method
of writing in a constrained
style. With any luck, I can
continue producing words in
an apparently endless flow.

Tale (2001)

Rain over Axis City. Over your head, pink neon sign - buzz, wink, buzz, wink - says: Live Orgy Here, Wild Romp This Nite Only, Tiny Cost. Dank back ways hide many bums. Some weep with real pain; many wait, mute, hope lost, mind dull - only Styx doom will come next. Dogs bark, drag dead rats into bins, then chew them.

Back home, Acid Head Alan goes over that edge, rapt, into gold axon foam, busy blue fire, cube rust math sums, Dali fury. Hazy Carl sits near, pipe bowl full with best dope, lips limp, eyes shut. Geek guys lurk next door: they hack RISC code - calm gone, wild with fuel (java, Jolt Cola, cigs), they hurl bits into flux, data gone amok. Next they stop, rest, chat, read mail. Then toil once more - them node jams need more work.

1000 ECHO "GAME OVER"
2000 GOTO 1000