Writing

A Quick Piece of Writing Advice

The importance of not overthinking your work.

For the past few weeks, my writing productivity has been pretty much non-existent and it’s only recently that things have begun to pick up again.

From May 26th until June 23rd I published absolutely nothing to my Medium profile. In fact, I barely even used the site at all.

Instead, I opted to spend (waste) my time scrolling through social media and watch pointless, mind-numbingly boring shows on Netflix.

The drive to sit down and write just wasn’t there. I had plenty of ideas but just couldn’t find the words to express them.

I did manage to write one article, but it took far longer than it should have and I found it a real struggle to put words on to paper/screen.

After a few days of this, frustration got the better of me and I decided to take a break from writing.

But when the time came to get started again, well, I ran into a few ‘issues’, which resulted in a prolonged period away from the keyboard — you can read more about that here.

Thankfully my drive to get after it again is slowly returning but as it does, and in a hope to avoid such outcomes in the future, I can’t help but look back over those barren few weeks and try to figure out why it took so long for me to get going again.

Was it laziness? — A little.

Maybe it was lack of ideas and not knowing what to write about? — Definitely not.

So, if not those — which are two of the most common reasons for a writer’s productivity levels to falter — then what?

Overthinking!

This was the culprit and the cause of my adversity.

Yes, my motivation was gone but I did still manage to push past that, ignore my laziness at times and actually fire up the laptop.

And as mentioned, I did have ideas, things in which I’d liked to have written about.

But when I began tapping those keys on the keyboard nothing seemed to be right.

Each sentence was meh. The words did not flow and it was a real pain just to put a simple paragraph together, and why?

All because I was overthinking the piece.

I wanted things to be perfect and when they weren’t, I let my emotions get the better of me, and then I’d just go back to being lazy again.

But, as is the case for all challenges faced, there was a lesson to be learned. And here’s what I came to realize as a result of my experiences.

There is a time to think and there is a time to act.

When writing there will be times when you have to slow things down, scrutinize over each sentence, contemplate every word but you’ll be able to keep a steady flow going.

Then there will be times when that flow just isn’t there, you will slow things down not because you have to analyse each paragraph but because you’re stuck. You’re trying to make the piece perfect but it’s just not happening. You’re overthinking and becoming frustrated. These are the times when you have to act.

Write something fun, don’t get too hung up on how things sound or the formatting, release your inner thoughts, enter into ‘the zone’ and let your fingers do the talking.

It doesn’t have to be good, you don’t even have to publish it, just enjoy the physical act of writing and let your creative side run free.

And in doing so you’ll feel much more relaxed in mind and in body, then when you’re ready you can return to piecing together your next masterpiece.

“Overthinking is like a vacuum of some kind — it sucks you in.” — Dinsa Sachan