Green Eggs and Ham uses only fifty different words because of a bet. A tight limit made a classic.

A hard limit removes the easy options and forces invention. With fifty words available, every ordinary solution is gone, so the writing has to find rhythm and repetition and surprise inside a tiny space. That pressure produced something more memorable than an unrestricted version would have been. Constraints look like obstacles and function as engines.

Put a brutal limit on your next small project and keep it. One hundred words, one colour, thirty seconds, no cuts. Finish it under the limit rather than negotiating with yourself halfway, because the whole value is in having nowhere else to go.