along the same lines, i discovered this great little zine (http://www.littleelegy.com) that specializes in “tiny lit” - short stories in 100 words or less.

I love quotes (good ones, of course, present wisdom in few words). This one both embodies the sentiment in this post and follows the character limit rule:

“If you can’t write your idea on the back of my calling card, you don’t have a clear idea.” - David Belasco

When he was creating the default sound effects for some version of Windows or other, he was enthralled by the constraints of trying to produce interesting music in sub 10 second bites.

As the other commenters have noted, there are a lot of great examples of how creative folks use constraints to enhance rather than hinder creativity. The mainly French writing group Oulipo takes this writing with constraints thing to outlandish extremes. A famous example is George Perec’s A Void, a 300 page novel that’s written entirely without the letter E. You can look them up on the wikipedia for more info of course, but I would like to point out one quote:

The group defines the term ‘littérature potentielle’ as (rough translation): “the seeking of new structures and patterns which may be used by writers in any way they enjoy”.

What I love about this is the idea of constraints as enjoyable tools.

JA famously described her novels as: “the little bit (two inches wide) of ivory on which I work with so fine a brush, as produces little effect after much labour.”

Nuff said.

Constraints on your physical surroundings works wonders also. I once moved from Seattle to Aberdeen, Washington (a depressed logging town on the Washington coast) for this exact reason. I needed to clear some headspace, so I moved to Aberdeen without a vehicle (almost unheard of - this is logger country) and rented a basement apartment. Other events in my life at the time made it not such a good decision, but creatively the results were astounding. I felt so much more free - to write, create, everything. Everything felt new in that new context. I found Seattle (and other cities with large amounts of creative people) creatively stifling.

Since the Aberdeen days, I moved back to Seattle and got married. After a year in the city, my wife and I escaped again - this time to Vashon Island - a little island a 20 minute ferry ride from Seattle and Tacoma in the Puget Sound. Having the physical constraints of a ferry schedule have been great for me. My money, time and attention are now more focused, without all the glittery distraction-filled lights of the city. It’s helped me focus inward and on my marriage and goals.

So the idea of constraints can be used in my contexts.

a whole universe of whisdom in 3 pictures and a few words.

Back in the days of mainframes & line printers, I had to write copy for the donation receipts for a nonprofit. Each week I had to come up with a new way to say thanks in a fixed space: a maximum of 9 lines of 54 characters each. I hated that task at the time, but I realize now that it forced me to be very creative and succinct.

For me, if I have a presentation due or some sort of quarterly report I force myself to use the simplest tool I can find. That usually is the app Textedit. It forces me to strip away all the fancy document options and focus on what matters. The message.