Over-thinking is something I have dealt with all my life. It has its advantages, like giving my brain a work out! It also, however is a cover up, a way of masking our fears and avoiding getting to those things we really want to do.
Here are a few things you might be “over-thinking” and ways of dealing with them:
The Plot – Are you trying to make your story perfect from the get got? Are you worrying so much about the details that you are frozen in place? The quickest way out of “plot freeze” is the act of writing.
Did you know that the process of writing uses a different part of the brain than pure thought? It engages our creative imagination and has a way of working things out where reason alone cannot.
The Structure – Don’t get me wrong, structure is important, no matter what you’re writing, but if what comes first, second or third is keeping you from putting pen to paper, do yourself a favor and quit worrying about it right now. Just write! Once you get all of your thoughts out the order often becomes obvious.
This is another instance when time and distance can provide valuable assistance. Write everything you can and then set the project aside. Work on something else if you like, but do your best not to think about the one you’ve put away. Let the fresh breeze of non-thinking clear out the cobwebs.
Everything! – When you find that your thinking and worrying about everything when it comes to your writing and the direction you are going with it, consider this – you may be over-thinking because you’re afraid. Are you stepping into new territory? Are you going in a direction you’ve never gone before? Are you itching to take a risk, but something is holding you back?
Fear of the unknown is something we all experience. When we are able to recognize that our worry is fear we can begin to give ourselves the support and encouragement we need to stare it down and get moving again. Fear is one thing that requires something other than thinking to quell. It requires developing confidence in our ability to handle and solve problems. It requires experience.
When you are afraid of the future, remind yourself the times you were met with a problem and solved it. Make a list of every new experience that you navigated and survived and how much you learned in the process. Most importantly, “feel the fear and do it anyway!”
If you could use some support, someone who understands how you feel and has been there too, reach out. Let’s talk over a virtual coffee. I can help.
Send me an email and we’ll find a time to connect.
LateBloomingWriters@gmail.com
I’m on Facebook too. Message me there. Or Twitter.
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4 thoughts on “Is Over-thinking Keeping You From Writing?”
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Over-thinking about plot, character development, etc. is not a barrier to my writing. But. over-thinking about self-marketing for free is a major obstacle. I’ve made a lot of mistakes.
There’s no such thing as free! What type of marketing mistakes do you believe you have made?
Well, and this is embarrassing, I’ve self-promoted on forums, a couple of which I have been banned for life.
Since my novel is cross-genre and hard to market, I’ve self-marketed it as SF, F, Romance, Self-Help for victions of child maltreatment, Literary, etc.
I’ve spent time submitting information to companies that have a free marketing option only because they want to sell you a package, and which are unlikely to actually give an author anything for free.
Worse, since I have no money to spend (and I mean zero), I’m likely to continue this failed strategy until I die (hopefully not soon). I recently retired one year before I qualify for Medicare.
I have 52 years of contributions into the Social Security fund. The last several years, I’ve worked as a children’s psychotherapist at our local community mental health center. Maybe I’m no good at marketing, but at least I’m getting some long overdue home repairs completed.
Self-promoting on blogs and in forums is frowned upon as you’ve discovered. It is extremely difficult to make money from our books, not impossible, just difficult../and time consuming. I have found connecting one-on-one with people the best means of marketing books. That means getting deeply involved in social media; developing a Twitter following where you actually talk to your followers and the same on as may social media platforms as you can stomach. An excellent way to get your writing noticed is via a blog and/or website. A blog is the least expensive and fastest way to gather a following. You can promote your book from that platform all you want as long as it interests your followers. Connecting with other bloggers, reading and commenting on their blogs will bring them to yours and to your book. Each post can be disseminated via social media. There’s much more I could say on this, but not knowing what you’ve already tried, etc. I will be posting some marketing tips here in the not to distant future. Have you tried writing articles for $?