Creative Constraints
Why absolute freedom sucks absolutely
Willy Wonka was wrong. The man who gets everything, whose horizons are unlimited, often falls flat on his face. That is one of the big ideas from David Epstein’s new book Inside The Box: How Constraints Makes Us Better. Less is more. More is mid.
“Don’t forget what happened to the man who suddenly got everything he always wanted... He lived happily ever after.”
—Gene Wilder as Willy Wonka
This newsletter is all about constraints, so I decided I should read the book.
I should read the book, but I shelved that idea for the moment and watched some interviews about the book instead (it’s on my TBR). I did not watch the interviews passively, though. I jotted down notes to distill the core ideas into a tightly constrained listicle that jettisons all the interesting stories and dramatic turns that clutter the interviews and book. Less is more, they say.
Lessons from Inside the Box
Satisfice, don’t maximize. Stop agonizing over making the perfect choice. Good enough gets more done.
Stop starting, start finishing. When the work gets tough, a fresh start provides instant gratification but also adds overhead. Finishing feels even better — it clears attentional residue.
Subtract before you add. Everything you add incurs a cost. By subtracting, you might actually find balance with fewer costs.
Batch all the loose ends. Task-switching derails focus. Collect the loose ends that snag your focus into batches and bundles you process together. Segregate them from deep work.
Block the normal way to find the new way. We all default to our strengths because that path offers the least resistance. Stop using our strengths, and we discover new paths.
See constraints as tools, not obstacles. The true story of famous inventions often shows that inspiration arises from adaptation. The obstacle creates a need for discovery.
Reflect on effect. Take a pause to reflect on the effect. Reflection outperforms blind repetition.
Narrate your values. There are infinite problems in the world, but each of us individually has limited strength. Narrate the values that have guided your life so you know where to focus.
Build high fences around open pastures. Too many ideas? Not enough discipline. That’s fine. Don’t sweat it. Give yourself space to wander, but set hard boundaries. The boundaries actually let you explore the limited space more fully.
Don’t be afraid to sample. This is more from his other book Range, but worth mentioning. It’s beneficial to try new things. Specialization often leads to strain, burnout, and injury.
» 🪦 Streak Saver Exercise: One Arm Tied
Setup: Identify your go-to move for conveying emotion:
(a) interiority, (b) dialogue, (c) physical reactions, (d) figurative language.
🎯 Goal: Immersion. Make the reader feel the tension and emotional weight of a conflict without using your default mode of delivering emotional information.
🚧 Constraints:
Describe a conflict between two characters without your go-to move.
Make the emotional reaction clear in the text.
Write until the moments relaxes or someone leaves.
Modification: For added complexity, use your go-to move to imply the opposite reaction while using other techniques to convey true feelings.
Reflection: Did the ban force you towards an unfamiliar move? Did that move produce any interesting results?
» Streak Saver Exercise: Fifty-Word Room
Setup: Describe the room you are in, or a space where a character is waiting.
🎯 Goal: Immersion. Use a severely restricted word-palette to create a sense of sameness and repetition.
🚧 Constraints:
Use no more that 50 words to describe the scene, repeated as many times as you like.
Eyeball it. Don’t get bogged down tracking the number of words exactly.
Stop when you feel absolutely stuck.
Modification: To get a better sense of what is being removed with each word chosen, start this exercise by listing 50 different items in the space you are describing.
Reflection: Was this exercise simply maddening, or did it produce something interesting?
» Streak Saver Exercise: The Elemental Table
Setup: You have a story in mind. Identify six elements that belong to it: characters, settings, themes, images, objects, relationships, etc.
🎯 Goal: Engagement. Write a paragraph that leaves out one element while still pointing towards it.
🚧 Constraints:
Pick one of the elements to exclude.
Write a paragraph introducing the other elements.
Let the paragraph point toward the excluded object without mentioning it directly.
Reflection: How effective do you feel the paragraph works at gesturing towards what is missing?
» Streak Saver Exercise: The Three Pitches
Setup: A character arrives home to discover something has changed — nothing catastrophic, but it generates intrigue.
🎯 Goal: Increase engagement by deliberately choosing how the scene unfolds.
🚧 Constraints:
Brainstorm three different ways to start, move through, and end the scene.
Choose one plan, or mix elements from each, to create the most intrigue.
Write the scene as planned.
Reflection: Did the extra time spent brainstorming turn up any ideas better than the original?
» Streak Saver Exercise: Diagnosing Narrative Indigestion
Setup: A character is simultaneously dealing with the following: (1) performing an action, (2) talking out a conflict, (3) reliving a memory, (4) making an observation, and (5) handling an interruption.
🎯 Goal: Immersion. Maintain the sense of overwhelm for the character without overloading the reader’s brain.
🚧 Constraints:
Try writing the scene with all five elements happening concurrently.
If you feel stuck, remove one element and try again. Repeat as needed.
Stop when you feel the right level of chaos.
Reflection: What are the signs that a scene is carrying too much?
» Streak Saver Exercise: The Conformity Draft
Setup: A character is leaving a place for the last time, knowing they will never return.
🎯 Goal: Immersion. Lean into cliche and tropes deliberately to make them visible.
🚧 Constraints:
Write the scene loaded with every cliche you can think of.
Don’t try to make it good.
Stop when you’ve run out of cliches.
Modification: For more complexity, rewrite the scene without any of the cliches and tropes used in the original.
Reflection: Which of the cliches exist because they are natural parts of the scene? Which exist because they are an easy tool to use?
» Streak Saver Exercise: Adjusting the Scope
Setup: Think of a one-beat scene that might fill a single page.
🎯 Goal: Balance immersion and engagement by adjusting the scope of a scene.
🚧 Constraints:
Scale down: Write the scene as a single short paragraph.
Scale up: Describe the scene as a single multi-page chapter.
End by deciding on a scale that would work best for the scene.
Reflection: Did the scene end up needing more or less space than you initially imagined?
» Streak Saver Exercise: Stop the Start
Setup: Imagine a dynamic, resonant beginning to a scene that would immediately draw in a reader.
🎯 Goal: Immersion. Keep the reader engaged throughout the scene by not losing momentum at the end.
🚧 Constraints:
Start writing the end of the scene.
Next, write the middle of the scene.
Finish with the beginning you imagined.
Reflection: In your own drafts, do your endings receive the same attention as your beginnings?