The standard advice for writers who are feeling uninspired or blocked is to allow your mind to wander where it will or to just start writing aimlessly to see what happens. Therefore to suggest the opposite approach, that of imposing some constraints on your thinking, seems completely counterintuitive.

However, this is precisely the strategy advocated by members and followers of the Oulipo, which is the acronym for Ouvroir de littérature potentielle. This is roughly translated as Workshop of Potential Literature.

Note that term “potential” literature. You don’t have to write a whole work (though some have), but adopting constraints is a good way of saying, in effect, “Here’s an experiment I tried. Might there be any mileage in taking it further? Or can I use it to kick-start a piece of creative writing?”

The autogram

For example, here’s an example of a technique known as the autogram….

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Imposing limits in order to enhance your creativity