I’m pulling the one-two punch on myself here by forcing myself a 30 day window to nail down the high concept of my next novel before I hash it out in another 30 day window called National Novel Writing Month.
At times like this, I can only bask in the glory of creative constraints. Without creative constraints, we wander. Wandering can be good, especially when it goes by that other name; Exploration.
But like all ships at sea, and all famous explorers, eventually you’ve got to sail home. Well, unless you’re Tom Wolfe.
Anyway, in that magical zone where great ideas are cooked up… you’ve got to bring it home. By ‘bringing it home’ I mean you’ve got to find a comfortable work zone that delivers results, and nothing delivers results like constraint. Alas all children stop coloring outside the lines, eventually. And while we shouldn’t allow the death of childhood to kill our sense of exploratory wonder. On the contrary, it’s a healthy shift of perspective to explore creativity through new constraints now and then. It’s all about creating challenges for yourself.
“What can I do if I only spend 30 minutes on this?”
“What can I do if I force a first draft in 30 days?”
These provide a framework for achievement. It may not necessarily be a goal, because not everyone who joins an exercise like National Novel Writing Month expects to finish in the alotted 30 days. No, the framework is something else. It is an arrangement of resources within your mind. You have one activity coupled with a specific time frame; Writing a first draft, in 30 days. It’s simple and concrete.
Contrast that with what I call an obsession with nothingness. People who set no working limits or framework for themselves, often drown themselves in their own creative freedom. Contrast “First draft in 30 days.” with “Some amount of something, in some unmeasured amount of time.” It’s no surprise that the latter often fails to deliver results of any substance. Such a creative process itself has no substance.
You can’t build something out of nothing. Creative constraints are all about resource management. If you were stranded in the wilderness, and were going to build a shelter, the first thing you’d probably do is take stock of what materials you have, and what you might be able to do with them. Then you’d establish an order to the construction. “I need to build a foundation first,” you’d say. You wouldn’t try to build the walls, and then lay the foundation under them after the fact.
And so even within creative culture, while we applaud creative freedom, we have to be careful not to suffocate ourselves with the breath-taking nature of a vast expanse. Eventually, something definite must be decided, and then executed. Things cannot remain indefinite forever.
We create for ourselves some creative constraints for the simple fact that we want to get things done.
What are some of your favorite creative constraints? Do you have any tried n’ true ones? Have you tried new ones lately? Is there anything you haven’t tried, but would like to? Do you have any Creative Constraint recipes to share?
“Contrast that with what I call an obsession with nothingness. People who set no working limits or framework for themselves, often drown themselves in their own creative freedom.”
I am not one of these folks, but I do have a different manner of novel prep. I take notes, and wait to know the story intimately before I write. But, I find as a writer of children’s fantasy, if I pre-plan too many of the details my creativity suffers. Different strokes…
I could never go without some constraints. I need the novel to go somewhere, to have conclict and more conflict, and to be a page turner.
This was a great post. I can’t add anything worthwhile — I think you’ve said it all — so I” just answer: the time constraint works the best for me. It’s hard to self-impose a deadline, but I’ve managed to do it. I initially said I’d be done with everything by April 2007 — that’s when I’d start querying — but as it turns out, I’m done. With the exception of minor tweaking, it’s over.
When I’m writing and editing, I’ll have sitting-pertinent constraints, like no bathroom breaks until I hit X amount of words, or more coffee when I finish this chapter. Fortunately, the obsessive editor in me allows me to pump out quality-ish stuff when I’m doing this.
A different kind of constraint I use is one on research. I’ll do a lot of preliminary research, but when it comes time to write, I have to skip over research-intensive parts. I’ll write the draft and mark the questionable or unfinished parts with a “$$” and possibly a parenthetical note so I’ll remember to go back and check it when I rewrite. If I don’t do this, I’ll spend days trying to find out exact facts, and 99% of the time they’re not at all important to the story.
And I really loved the wilderness analogy.
S, I know what you mean by pre-planning too much. You can only take things so small on the granular level before you become way too particular and you might as well just be drafting.
Eliza, totally with you on the over-research thing. Exact facts aren’t really important to the story. For me research is just fodder for ideas. The more fodder I have available to me, the more likely I’ll be able to synthesize something out of it. It’s pretty much a numbers game. But when you’re running out of time and just need to start writing, you don’t really have much time for that kind of fermentation.
[...] Agent X is back from vacation and blogging again . . . . Allison Brennan offers some good advice on writing flashbacks . . . . Burning Void reviews Novelist’s Boot Camp. Therese is currently road-testing this method as well, and we’ll keep you posted on how effective it is . . . . Ray, as always, shows us the way. This time it’s on effective openings . . . . over at Quantum, Eric, a NaNo veteran, blogs about creative constraints and how they will help your work. [...]
My constraints are called deadlines! At work I always manage to get things done on deadline (albeit last minute). Therefore, I have signed up for the Nano. First time. You sparked the idea so I blame you. But, I need to get this first dang draft done. With Nano I can focus totally on getting words down rather than worrying about this and that and is it good enough or fixing little pieces, etc., etc., etc.
I find I also work well under contest constraints too. Probably because I’m a show off. ;)
Now. Can I get my outline in a decent enough shape before Nov. 1? Maybe we should have a Pre-NaNoWriMo month and call it NaOutMo (National Outlining Month).
[...] Eric’s post entitled “Cooking Up Some Creative Constraints” got me thinking, and thinking hard. I’ve been fiddling around with ideas for NaNoWriMo, and I thought I had it settled, but it turns out I didn’t. This afternoon (after sleeping in ’til 12:30 oh-em-gee that never happens anymore!) I settled in with my notebook and started writing. [...]
Great site – will be stopping by again and again.
Someone once told me, that when a writer stops writing, that’s exactly when they start feeling bad and then they mistakenly translate that feeling into a reason not to write. If you are a writer – not writing is often the cause for not writing. Get your head around that one. I think I know what he meant.
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