Can’t Write Because Your Thinking’s Stuck? Try This.
My brain gets muddled when trying to process too many ideas at once so I took action
Maybe I’d think more clearly if I was writing only one thing — like my crime and thriller novels, only writing content for clients, or putting my journalism into overdrive with my Medium publication So Cal Live Work Play.
Ever heard the saying, “It’s easier to get into something than it is out of it?”
That’s me. It’s easy for me to get ideas and pursue them and I’ve been a generalist in life, not a specialist. That’s one reason I enjoyed starting off in radio news. I got to cover a variety of topics.
Variety is nice but switching your brain from one gear to another to process stories and articles is tough. I often begin writing on one idea and others crowd my thoughts and try to fight through.
One idea begins fighting another so I found that a simple form of journaling is useful.
This morning, I sat and jotted a full page of story ideas. Just one line, one after another. Within a few minutes, I had 15 ideas that are all doable.
Writing down the ideas isn’t enough. I’m going to have to outline them in a basic, easy-to-follow format so I can write them quickly.
Here’s what the paper looks like:
My approach to outlining
Time is of the essence and I lose time when my mind wanders. I’ll outline it like this:
Title: Writing is a Process of Discovery
Overview: Whether you’re writing fiction, memoir, or even content for your blog what will you discover that you didn’t know or anticipate?
Sections:
- Writing my current work-in-progress novel (what surprised me about the characters)
- Discovering authority I didn’t know I had
- Discovering how other related topics
3rd party source: pull in a credible source to quote so the piece isn’t just my opinion.
It may take me another hour or two to outline and I could do about 3 to 5 topics at a time.
This may not be perfect but this approach could make it easier for me to write without getting bogged down in my own busy mind. If so, I’ll be far more productive and at peace than I am now.
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