Encouraging Creativity with Limits

Sometimes, the best way to come up with something cool or new or innovative is to be required to perform under strict restraints. Procedural generation is a good example. It involves generating art and other content "on the fly" instead of beforehand by artists. The reason procedural generation was developed was that game studios wanted to created more immersive, detailed game worlds but either couldn't fit the amount of data they wanted to use onto their storage medium or because they didn't have enough time or artists to create everything by hand. Another example is haiku, which is some of the most beautiful poetry out there. Live music done as well as if it was recorded in a studio is rare, but great- it takes a lot of talent to sound just as good unedited.

I figure this can apply to blogging as well, so here are some restraints that I may or may not use:

• 2 words
• 10 words
• 100 words
• Only a picture
• Uses sound, visuals, and writing
• Uses bullet points
• Uses a numbered list
• A picture per paragraph
• In response to another article/blog
• Concerning something I don't care about at all
• Don't use the word "the" (or some other word)
• The first letters of each sentence spells something
• Every sentence contains a link
• All words less than or equal to five letters
• No semicolons (a hard one for me)
• At least ten puns
• Something that looks good but means absolutely nothing