Constraints. Boundaries. Limitations.
At first glance, these things sound like real creativity killers. You’re acutely aware of everything you can’t do.
Some constraints are forced on us. Timelines, budgets, resources. Some, we get to choose. Form, shape, material, content, genre, tone, style.
Constraints tell us what’s in play, and what’s out of play.
With any creative work, we make choices. Of all the possibilities, we make these particular choices, and not those. We commit to this, not that. And every decision we make is a constraint, further focusing our work.
Many think constraints are limitations that reduce freedom, and ultimately, creativity. But, constraints are catalysts. Instead of killing ideas, constraints forge them.
Picasso used only blue paint for a year.
Dr. Seuss wrote Green Eggs and Ham using only 50 unique words.
Hemingway famously wrote his six-word story. “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.”
Shakespeare wrote in iambic pentameter.
So, why does starting a creative work feel impossible? Because the blank page is the silence of a thousand decisions. Too many options. And those infinite possibilities send us headlong into cognitive collapse. Our brains shut down from choice overload. This, by the way, is the brilliance of ALDI grocery stores. We get one choice of tomato sauce. There’s no decision fatigue.
T.S. Eliot said, “When forced to work within a strict framework, the imagination is taxed to its utmost - and will produce its richest ideas. Given total freedom, the work is likely to sprawl.”
In a culture obsessed with unfettered freedom and choice, we forget that boundaries sharpen vision. The paradox is simple. Limits don't shrink the imagination. They give it something to push against. Constraints don’t confine, they clarify. It’s through constraints that we find the freedom we’re looking for.
Constraints force us to be resourceful. They focus and direct and guide our work. They disarm analysis paralysis. Having a framework, form, or structure is liberating.
So, embrace the tension between structure and freedom. The sweet spot is enough rules to focus, and enough space to explore. Constraints act like the banks of a river for the ideas to flow. Freedom playing inside form.
A framework to create within might actually be a creative gift. If you’re stuck, give yourself constraints.
“Form provides the essential boundaries and structure for the creative act.” - Rollo May
“The absence of limitations is the enemy of art.” - Orson Wells
Questions for Reflection
Do constraints frustrate or fuel you? Why?
When did a constraint focus your work?
List the constraints that are already present in your current creative project.
What decisions or constraints have you been avoiding that would create useful boundaries for your work?
Which constraints can you intentionally choose or define to help shape your work? Create a tight rule set.
How might a tight constraint push your creativity in new directions? What if you had to tell your story in just six words? Or use only visuals? Or only one color? Or a different medium or format? What might that version look like?
Where are you currently experiencing choice overload, and what constraint could help you focus?
Instead of asking what’s possible, what if you asked what’s necessary? How does that shift your creative priorities?
If you have a story or illustration about how constraints helped your creative work, don’t keep it to yourself. I’d love to hear from you.