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3 Creative Constraints for Crafting Your 3 Word Rebellion

Did you know that Dr. Seuss was once challenged to write a book using only 50 words?

He accepted and rose to that challenge.

Oh, yes, he did, and that book became one of the most beloved Dr. Seuss books of all time, Green Eggs and Ham.

Now, I'm a rebel.

I'm also a nerd who likes structure, so my motto is “rebel and do it with structure and a plan.”

Rebellion without structure is rioting, and the purpose of the 3 Word Rebellion is to craft a statement that encapsulates the change you want to create.

It's the hook that makes people sit up, take notice, and say “Yes.”

Creativity without constraint is chaos, chaos that has you swimming in a sea of possibilities, never making a decision on what your message is going to be and not moving forward.

It's analysis paralysis.

You've done the free writing for your 3 Word Rebellion.

(If you missed that, it was in our last episode called The Foundation of Crafting Your 3 Word Rebellion. You can also just head over to threewordrebellion.com and grab the Playbook.

Now that you have the free writing, it's time to create the constraints.

Prefer to listen?

                                           

Today, I'm going to talk about the three creative constraints for crafting your 3 Word Rebellion.

Creative Constraint #1: The Two Flavors of the 3 Word Rebellion

There are two flavors of 3 Word Rebellion that can guide your creation.

The first flavor is the battle cry.

The battle cry is a command.

It is a directive for your audience about the change that you want to create.

It's the action that you want them to take, and it's the message that you want them to spread.

Some examples of a battle cry are Start With Why, by Simon Sinek, Make America Great Again, which was Donald Trump's campaign slogan, and Start the Impossible, which was used during the 2018 Winter Olympics and Paralympics.

What you'll notice is that a battle cry always starts with an action verb.

Honestly, that makes the battle cry an easy thing to craft compared to the second flavor.

The second flavor of the 3 Word Rebellion is naming the change.

Naming the change is about giving a name to the change you want to create, and sometimes it is a noun.

This second flavor, naming the change, actually has two sub-types.

The first is the noun where you are naming that agent of change, what is going to create the change for them.

A great example of this is Mel Robbins with The 5 Second Rule because The 5 Second Rule is how you create change in your life. It's how you take action, so she named that mechanism of change.

The Three Word Rebellion is also a mechanism of change.

The second sub-type is giving a name to the change you want to see created.

Black Lives Matter, that is the change that movement wants to see where black lives matter.

Never Again is a great example of a change that the Parkland students want to see.

Both are great examples of the seeing the change you want to see created.

To be honest, I'm still developing this concept of the flavor of the 3 Word Rebellion, but I wanted to give it to you now because this is what I'm seeing in my initial research, so use those two types as you are creating your 3 Word Rebellion.

Creative Constraint #2: Be Positive

Creative constraint number two, be positive.

Remember, rebelling against the status quo is not enough.

You must paint a picture of the change you want to create.

Where are you leading your audience?

What does it look like when you get there?

People are inspired by a picture of change.

With this in mind, you have to lead your people to a brighter future, which means, most of the time, you want to avoid negative words like don't, not, and stop in your 3 Word Rebellion.  

You will find that 9 times out of ten, those words are really rooted in what you're rebelling against rather than speak to the change you want to create.

The one caveat I would make for this constraint because, hey, rules are made to be broken, is if the brighter future is already agreed upon by the people in your movement.

For instance, the high school students in Parkland, where 17 teachers and students were massacred, started the Never Again movement to hold politicians' feet to the fire.  They never again want to see another school shooting, and that is a brighter future.

Your 3 Word Rebellion should be a positive statement that is painting the picture of a brighter future.

Creative Constraint #3: Keep it Short

The final creative constraint, number three, is to keep it to 2 to 5 words.

I call this the 3 Word Rebellion because three words tend to be the easiest for the audience to remember, repeat, and tell others.

This goes back to the old rhetoricians and you probably learned the rule of threes in your writing class.

Three has a great rhythm.

It's easy to remember, and it's easy to stick in your mind, but I'll give you a little wiggle room here because I know that sometimes it's really hard to narrow it down to just three words.

Create a 3 Word Rebellion that is between 2 to 5 words.

It should be memorable with that length, but having a five-word rebellion means you'll need to get very creative with the hashtag that you create for your Three Word Rebellion.

Those are the three creative constraints: Number one, that there are two flavors of 3 Word Rebellion, number two, keep it positive, and number three, keep it to 2 to 5 words.

Need Help?

If you already know that you are a yes for finding your 3 Word Rebellion, but hey, you are not good at applying these constraints on your own, and you'd like to work with me on it – Let’s talk!

Or if you'd like to work to create the speech that incites action or a package and price, you're speaking so that you get the gigs and make your mark, then we should definitely talk!

Go to https://drmichellemazur.com/speak-for-impact-strategy to apply for a chat to see if we're a fit to work together.

Now go forth and write your 3 Word Rebellion and change the world.