Exhaust
Record every instance, the dull ones too; stop only when none are left.
Ruscha: every building on the Sunset Strip, not the best ones.
Seen in Ed Ruscha, Every Building on the Sunset Strip, 1966
Try it on your work
Gather every physical thing your project has produced or touched, however small, into one place. Stop only when a five-minute search finds nothing more. Count them and write the number down.
List every word or phrase you have used to describe the project to other people, until you cannot remember another. Circle the one that appears most, and say the list aloud once.
Write down every decision the project has absorbed so far, chosen or defaulted. Stop when three consecutive minutes produce nothing new. Mark the ones nobody actually made.
How it has been used
Georges Perec sat in a Paris café for three days writing down everything that happened, especially the things nobody would bother recording. Complete beats interesting. The move forbids selection: you don't get to stop when you have the good ones, only when there are no more.
Where it leads
Grouped under Give me more to work with