You want your creativity to have no bounds. You want to be able to think of anything you can imagine, go crazy with it, and never be told what to do.
Right?
In a recent coaching session, I watched video of a comedian performing on stage for about ten minutes. She was new to it, and she was funny. I helped her identify her comic persona.
The knowledge was a game-changer for her. She’s eager to narrow her focus and work only on material that matches her newly discovered persona.
Seasoned comedians know this is the only way to work.
Having a structure, format, template, or rules for your creativity can sharpen your writing and help you come up with better ideas. It can save you from a lot of floundering around.
People used to ask me if working at The Onion was stifling because everything we published had to be in the same strict AP style. To the contrary, I appreciated the constraint. I often imagined the paralyzing dread I would have felt writing for National Lampoon, where there was no structure. Writers could just write whatever they wanted.
Whether it’s a persona, a story structure, a format, or a template you create, consider giving your creativity constraints. It may seem like a counterintuitive idea, but it actually frees you up to do your best work.
This is one of the reasons I finally settled on a UPA flat style for my animation. Much like South Park, the constraints can lead to some very funny stylistic visuals.
100% agree. I learned this back in the day trying to write poetry. The freedom of free verse could be paralyzing. I came to appreciate the constraints imposed by forms like the sonnet, qasida & sestina.
What's next? BDSM?