This has been balling around in my head the last few days. https://bigthink.com/mind-brain/why-imposing-restrictions-can-actually-boost-creativity/ The concept that constraints actually aid creativity is debatable. I'm not going to die on that hill, but to me it's sensible enough, especially considering how smaller budget productions of other media can end up excelling in their respective markets. They may have been forced to make good use of a particular set location, costume, lack of technology, lack of synthesized instrument, lack of time. Or even better, maybe parts of the project had to be cut entirely due to cost, which can result in a more focused experience when said and done. In other words, limitations really milk the noggin. I'm not coming up with much when applying this to creative writing, however. There is no 'we can only lease this warehouse for three days,' 'we'll have to cut that weird casino planet side plot because we just can't afford it,' 'there's no time to implement that video game feature,' 'there's a pyrotechnic strike this year until Christopher Bay settles the accounts.' Length is a constraint, but that's on the more extreme ends of the regression, which flash fiction being a great example. I'm not sure how well it serves on the other end of the spectrum, though. I don't think there's any creative boon in having to meet something like a 200k word target. Brevity is generally more rewarded. Format is a universal constraint, but that applies to most media anyway. Deadlines make sure that works get written when they otherwise would not, so their benefit is ultimately binary. Genre conventions may actually be a good limitation, depending on whether the author thinks he needs to follow them, because he may find creative ways to subvert them. But with the exception of harlequins, they are usually suggestions or patterns much more than they are actual limitations. Any thoughts? Can constraints help creativity in writing, or are they always a bad thing? And what kind of constraints could be a good thing for the creative process? Are there any unique ones you have ever self-imposed to keep things interesting?
Interesting question. I can't think of any good constraints for fiction (hey, it's late, and I should be in bed!), but I've definitely found formal constraints useful in writing poetry. Trying to fit a tight rhyme scheme or a particular stanza structure can make your brain go into different directions that you might not have considered otherwise.
Number of PoVs could count. It's generally recommended to go for as few as necessary, so restricting yourself to one, especially in genres that typically have more could lead to a more focused and intense story. I'd say setting can provide a lot of limitations. If your writing a story set in a historical time period, or equivalent time period in cases of fantasy, your word choice and dialogue style could require a lot more thought to make sure it sounds right. I'm not sure those are limitations in the same way budgetary concerns are for other media, but they are restrictions that could inspire more creative solutions.
I swear by creative constraints. I write fixed-form poetry because the fixed forms force me to stretch in other ways. Writing in rhyme and meter, let alone a villanelle or rondeau (poetic forms with strict repetition/rhyme schemes), for example, forces me to choose better ways of saying what I want to say. My fixed-form poetry has won prizes in a prestigious competition, but when I try free verse, it just looks like bad prose with random line breaks! Similarly, with prose, I do flash fiction best, because I have to fit the whole story into 1,500 words or less. It forces me to cut out scenes, sentences, and words that are just dead weight.
Before a word is written for a new story, the writer is presented with infinite choices as to where it might to go. A well-studied phenomenon is "choice overload" - that when we have too many choices it tends to shut down our brain. I think choice overload is an aspect of writer's block. Once you begin a story, the options are narrowed. You know what the story is about. Still plenty of room for creativity and imagination, but the options are no longer overwhelming. Same with characters. Once a character is created, restrictions on what they say and do in the story manifest. Now you have a guideline, and can flesh the character out. From the article at the link: those students who slammed up against constraints tended to think more deeply about options. They were also more motivated. Why do constraints tend to make us more creative? According to Haught-Tromp, they help cut down the number of choices to subsets that we find manageable. This allows us to “explore less familiar paths, to diverge in previously unknown directions.”
