Creative Pep Talk #104: Limitations

It’s counterintuitive, but sometimes limitations are your best friend, especially when you’re doing something creative. I explain why in this super-short episode.

Listen to my conversation with Nick Morrison here.

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Transcript: Limitations

Please note: This is an unedited transcript, provided as a courtesy, and reflects the actual conversation as closely as possible. Please forgive any typographical or grammatical errors.

Nancy Norbeck [00:00:00]:
Welcome to Follow Your Curiosity. Ordinary People, Extraordinary Creativity. Here’s how to get unstuck. I’m your host, creativity coach, Nancy Norbeck. Let’s go. Hey, everybody. This is Nancy Norbeck, and I am here with this week’s Creative Pep Talk.

Nancy Norbeck [00:00:24]:
This week, I want to talk about something that frankly, I’m kind of surprised that I don’t think we’ve talked about before, and that is limitations. And I don’t mean boundaries here. I mean limitations in the sense of constraints. These are things that kind of tend to fall in the same category as structure. It’s the sort of thing that a lot of creative people really, really bristle at the idea of. I don’t want to be limited. I want to be free to do whatever I want. And that’s understandable.

Nancy Norbeck [00:00:55]:
I get it. Believe me, I do, because I’m one of those people who bristles against it. But. But the fact is that when you have too broad a canvas, literal or metaphorical, it can be really daunting. It can be hard to figure out what the heck you want to do because the possibilities are too endless for me. I also experience this issue if somebody says to me, what do you want to have for dinner? Where do you want to go to eat? And there are too many things to pick from. Whereas if someone says, well, would you rather have Mexican or Chinese? I can make that decision really easily. It’s the same phenomenon.

Nancy Norbeck [00:01:32]:
It’s just now we’re applying it to creative work. So, for instance, if you know that you need to write something and it has to fit in a certain number of words, it has to be on a certain topic, and it has to include, say, a teddy bear. You have now certain parameters to work within. So you’re not sitting here trying to figure out, I, I have the entire universe of possibilities to choose from, what the heck am I going to do? See how that works? You are focused now on those three things, and so you can pick something and work really, really well within it. Sometimes people choose to do this as a challenge. For instance, the Olipo movement that started in France about 60 some years ago and is apparently still going strong is the example that everyone turns to in this particular case. And one of the most famous products of that Movement is the 300 page novel that was written without using the letter E. And I believe that that is also the case for the English translation, which is really hard because the letter E is the most commonly used letter in the English language.

Nancy Norbeck [00:02:41]:
So when you set yourself that kind of a challenge then you really have to rise to the occasion and you really have to get creative about how you’re going to do it. It’s a test, but but it can also produce some really, really interesting results. One episode of the podcast that you might want to check out where we talked about this is my interview with Nick Morrison a couple years ago. I’ll include the link to that in the show notes so that it’s easy for you to find. But if you haven’t ever played with limitations or constraints, I really suggest you give it a try. It may sound horrifying to you, but do it as an experiment. See what happens. It’s kind of like the writing prompts that your teacher may have given you in high school, or your painting prompts or, you know, whatever field you’re it can be really, really useful, especially if you’re stuck, to give yourself a limitation to work within because ironically, it can really free you up.

Nancy Norbeck [00:03:35]:
So I hope you give it a try. If you do, let me know how it goes. And with that, I’ll see you next time. If this episode resonated with you, or if you’re feeling a little bit less than confident in your creative process right now, join me at the Spark on Substack as we form a community that supports and celebrates each other’s creative courage. It’s free and it’s also where I’ll be adding programs for subscribers and listeners. The link is in your podcast app, so sign up today. See you there and see you next week. Follow Your Curiosity is produced by me, Nancy Norbeck, with music by Joseph McDade.

Nancy Norbeck [00:04:12]:
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