Merlin’s weekly podcast with Dan Benjamin. We talk about creativity, independence, and making things you love.
Merlin’s weekly podcast with Dan Benjamin. We talk about creativity, independence, and making things you love.
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Creative Constraints: Going to Jail to Get Free
Merlin Mann | Mar 24 2008
A Brief Message: No Resistance Is Futile Paul Ford has been posting six-word Twitter updates for a few weeks, and now he's also created the magnum opus of six-word criticism: sexological reviews of the 763 mp3s in this year's SxSW torrent. Writing on (the 200-words-or-less site) A Brief Message, Paul talks about how the constraint changed his approach and his thinking:
Yes. Constraints. As Paul shows, constraints get you thinking about the creative process in a whole new way. Me? I ♥ constraints. 30 seconds. 5 things. Less than 140 characters. In fact: Twitter's making me a stronger writer. I think harder about how to say more using fewer and shorter words. Nothing beats hitting the Twoosh. (140 chars) Let's close with a favorite quote on creative constraint from Anne Lamott's wonderful Bird by Bird. She explains that she keeps a one-inch-square picture frame on her desk to remind her of "short assignments:"
Well put. (And only 17 characters north of the Twoosh.) The Question to YouGot a good example of a creative constraint at work? 23 Comments
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The ToolsSubmitted by Darrel Girardier on March 24, 2008 - 8:40pm.
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. » POSTED IN:
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