Limits are a document, not a mood

The creators who have the fewest bad days are the ones who write things down. Not a contract drafted by a solicitor, though that matters for money. A list, in writing, agreed before anyone arrives: what is happening, what is not happening, who is present, how long, and what the word is that stops it.

This is not a formality and it is not distrust. It is the difference between a disagreement about what was agreed and a disagreement about whether something was agreed at all, and only one of those is survivable.

Four things worth having in writing every time.

What the work is. Specific enough that nobody arrives with a different film in their head.

What it is not. The list of things that are not happening is the more useful list, and it should be written by whoever has the most to lose by it being vague.

How it stops. An agreed word or gesture that ends the take immediately, with no negotiation afterwards about whether it was meant. Anyone present can use it.

Where it goes. Which platforms, which territories, how long, and whether it can be resold. A creator who has not agreed distribution has agreed nothing.

Agreement given before the day can be withdrawn on the day, and withdrawal is not a breach of anything. Someone who treats a prior message as a commitment that overrides what a person says in the room has misunderstood the document and probably the law.

Keep the thread. Not as ammunition, but because memory is unreliable and a dated message is not. PALMA's own enforcement process asks for evidence, and the people who can produce it are consistently the people who kept the boring paperwork.