3

Motivated by ongoing contest, I was looking for less used writing areas on the site and make those areas more exposed, active and open to larger audiences. My first question after the contest's announcement, was driven by same motivation and I asked about writing puzzles, making the tag (I will open another meta post for finalizing a proper wiki for the same).

Researching further I landed up over Constrained Writing. I realized that Constrained Writing is completely untouched area on our site. Before starting to ask questions on main site, I raised this meta post to clarify and get general consensus of community over following points:

  1. Constrained writing is generically huge topic. It contains specific types/forms like Haiku, Sonnet, Anagrams,Abecedarius, Twiction etc. So is it okay to create a tag named "Constrained-Writing" OR shall separate tags be created for each specific type like Haiku, Sonnet etc?
  2. Deciding scope and on-topicness of the topic as a whole in general.

Can I get the general overview of the community please?

Meanwhile, I have posted one question on the same topic on main site (because the contest will end soon and I want to make entry their. Selfish me). Do let me know if the question is unfit or happens to be off topic.

5
  • Just thought I'd point out, your question wouldn't qualify for the contest. Only tags with at least 10 questions qualify.
    – Galastel supports GoFundMonica
    Mar 13, 2019 at 17:59
  • 1
    Some time ago I've posted a little guideline on how to rate new tag ideas under the question I'd like some guidance on creating tags. Just in case you want to get a feeling for it yourself or want some help on how to make a case for a new tag. I don't have the time to go through the points properly right now. Maybe later, but you might want to take a look.
    – Secespitus
    Mar 13, 2019 at 19:53
  • 1
    @Galastel Thankfully that's not the only one tag used. Other tag hopefully would make it eligible for the entry
    – Karan Desai
    Mar 14, 2019 at 6:28
  • @Secespitus Thanks for the link. I'll surely keep that in mind.
    – Karan Desai
    Mar 14, 2019 at 6:29
  • Constraints like "no 'e'" or hidden messages feel different to me than constraints of forms (like haiku). Maybe we shouldn't try to include poetic forms (some of which can have their own tags).
    – Monica Cellio
    Mar 15, 2019 at 2:11

3 Answers 3

Reset to default
4

I took off your tag. It's just too specific. While we might want something to cover short pieces of creative writing (jokes, riddles, humor, captions, puzzles, memes, even tweets...some are fictional and some not), having a whole tag on puzzles seems like overkill.

I didn't remove but I think we should discuss it. It might be okay but I'm not convinced there's a need. Also, while non-free verse poetry has constraints, it is not constrained writing and that is not an appropriate tag for it. The appropriate tag for sonnets, haikus, and the like is .

Note that, before seeing this Meta post, when I edited your constrained writing question, I added the tag. So it qualifies for the contest, go ahead and enter! As Galastel points out, your new tags don't qualify anyway. That was done on purpose (thanks Monica!).

1
  • Thanks for the feedback - Noted
    – Karan Desai
    Mar 14, 2019 at 6:15
3

Honestly, "constrained writing" looks to me like an unnecessary tag. On the one hand, it is very broad. On the other, half of it (haiku, sonnets, acrostics, etc.) would fit under . We also have a more specific .

Twitter could perhaps fit under .

The rest - anagrams etc. - perhaps we could have a more specific tag covering those, but excluding poetry. If there are multiple questions asking about it. Otherwise, seems good enough to me. You can make your case if you find/ask more questions that would fit under such a tag.

1
  • Noted. Thanks :)
    – Karan Desai
    Mar 14, 2019 at 6:15
3

Would an "Experimental Writing" tag work? That would cover constrained writing (such as the novel without an "e") , avant-garde bizarreness, and also people writing fiction that is deliberately playing with the fourth wall, or is layering symbolism upon symbolism (as a recent question had).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Experimental_literature

5
  • 1
    If I had a question about "writing a novel without an e", I wouldn't intuitively look for "experimental writing" as the tag that I'd want to apply. And if I encountered the tag, it wouldn't be self-explanatory - I'd have to read the tag wiki to figure out what it was about.
    – Galastel supports GoFundMonica
    Mar 14, 2019 at 17:20
  • Sounds good and it seems to cover everything
    – Karan Desai
    Mar 14, 2019 at 17:20
  • Perhaps Experimental as the broad one, and constrained as a synonym?
    – April Salutes Monica C.
    Mar 14, 2019 at 17:23
  • 1
    It's not perfect but I can't come up with a better word. Though I'm still not convinced it's needed at all. If there are just a couple, they can go under technique
    – Cyn
    Mar 14, 2019 at 19:42
  • I think like the "podcast" one being used to say "Yes, we are interested in answering questions related to writing a 'cast", an "experimental" one signals "hey, we're not only about the 3-act structure here". It can also guide answer-ers as to what sort of answers are wanted.
    – April Salutes Monica C.
    Mar 14, 2019 at 20:27

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .