This is one of my favourite writing challenges that I like to do. It is called No E’s Please. Very simply, you need to write a story and you are not allowed to use the letter e at all. It is quite the challenge because of course e is used so much. You can’t even use the word ‘the’.
The reason I love this challenge is because it really helps you with your vocabulary. If the word you want to use has an e in it, what other words could you use to express what you want to say?
Some tips: 1) A thesaurus is your greatest tool in this challenge!! 2) Try writing in present tense. So many verbs in past tense have ‘ed’ at the end of them, which you can’t use. 3) If you are typing your story, search for the letter e to see if you have succeeded. Every time I think I’ve succeeded, I do a check and find there are a couple of pesky e’s still remaining.
You might like to challenge yourself against someone and the winner is the person with the fewest number of e’s.
Did you know, there is a novel called Gadsby by Ernest Vincent Wright that doesn’t feature the word e?
I had a go today to write a short story with no e’s. Here is my attempt below. If you make an attempt, you might like to share it here for others to read.
An Old Sad Cat
Sally is a cat; a sad, old cat sitting in a windowsill all day, watching with longing as birds fly outdoors. Sally isn’t a cat who snacks on birds, no—Sally is a cat who wants to fly!
Night falls and an angry storm is on hand. Rain pours, lightning cracks and wind howls. It is a tornado! Glass bursts and Sally is now missing. High up, lost in a black clump of clouds, Sally is bawling with joy. Sally is flying at last!
Abruptly, all rain, lightning and wind drops and a calm night sky rolls out. Sally is not flying now.
Sally is falling.
Fast.
But Sally’s final act is satisfying. Sally is not a sad, old cat now. Sally is a happy, old cat.
Splat.
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