Constraint Breeds Creativity

Guess during which of the following two scenarios I got "better" writing done:

1. We just landed in San Francisco and before I got a "real" job, I wrote full time.
2. I worked at a naming agency in Berkeley, California for a while. I lived in San Francisco. I had a 24-minute one-way commute on the metro.

The math doesn't seem to make sense, but when I was "constrained" with a time limit, I had "better" output.

Now, we can get into specifics here (yes, I wrote "more" when I wrote full time) but for the sake of this exercise, we're going with it.

5-Word Hooks

In your Reedsy Meta Data document, you have a chapter for 5-Word Hooks. It's an exercise in precise and "narrow" thinking. The idea is to explain or describe or even "sell" your idea using only 5 words.

PRO TIP: Add even more constraint, take only 10 minutes or get to a list of 10, whichever comes first. Another tip? Don't edit, go flow Joe.

I'm setting the clock right now and doing 10 of them for the book "Worst Book Ever."

1. Your best book on hold.
2. Let out the good stuff.
3. Set your inner creative free.
4. It's not me, it's you.
5. 96 pages of crap first.
6. Unblock the pipes of imagination.
7. You are your own block.
8. You are your own hurdle.
9. You are your own mountain.
10. Move mountains with tiny molehills.
11. Measly molehills move magnificent mountains.

Ooh, I like #11. See what happened? I almost stopped at 10 then kept going just a little more.

Action

1. Write them out in the peace of Reedsy.
2. Share them with the group in Tribe.