Help! I’m Suffering from Writer’s Overload

How do you get out of the opposite of writer’s block?

I have seen countless articles about what to do when you have writer’s block. But with the start of 2020, I have the opposite problem.

I have writer’s overload.

I have so many goals for this new year I have a really hard time focusing the swirling thoughts in my brain enough to decide on a single thing to sit down and write.

On this platform, I have different articles that I have been thinking about and I have several drafts that I am working on at any given time. It’s hard to decide on which one to focus my energy or attention on, and I find myself finding other things to do instead of writing.

Plus, I have high ambitions for myself outside of this platform as well.

Numerous writers like Brian Rowe, Amy Chan, Ayodeji Awosika and Thomas Smith have inspired me that this is the year that I will find my courage and start submitting to magazines and literary journals. Their stories of going through failure to success help equip me with confidence that even if I get rejected down the road, it is better than not taking the step forward.

I want to write for women’s and parenting magazines, I want to write for education magazines, and I want to write more short stories, not just for this platform, but to also shoot for the moon and see if I can get something accepted into a journal as well.

So each of those goals will also take my words, thought out, written out and edited before I can submit them. Have I been spending my precious bits of evening time writing these articles and stories so I can be bold enough to send these words out, and risk rejection?

No.

I have not.

I’ve been spending my nights making lists of magazines that will accept submissions or writing down just the start of ideas I have, quick jots of notes on my phone, and nothing else. Lists and notes that won’t get me where I want to be.

Either that, or I’ve spent my nights watching TV, reading a book or playing video games. Also, not a great way to accomplish my goals, I know.

I am suffering from writer’s overload.

I have so many ideas, so many ambitions, so many plans for the year that I find myself running away from the hard work part of these goals.

It’s like all of these concepts for how to “become a writer” this year have filled in all of my electrical sockets, and instead of efficiently delivering electricity to all of the power hungry devices, it has overloaded my system, and now I am writing less than I was a few months ago.

I’m trapped in a maze of my thoughts, and I am not sure how to find direction again. If I write something for a magazine, it means I forfeit that idea as something that people can read here, but if I write something here, I forfeit that idea as something I could realistically submit to most magazines, who demand “unpublished” manuscripts.

Life was simpler when I didn’t consider myself a writer, when I lacked ambition, and when I was ecstatic that I had anyone read something I wrote here, because I started with so few hopes for this site.

But now I have been bitten by the writing bug. I find that I enjoy writing, and as a bonus, people seem to also enjoy what I have written. I have allowed myself to think of myself as “a writer” and as such, I want to be like those writers who have stories of both rejections and acceptances. I want to try, even if it means I will fail.

But I am too overwhelmed to write the stories I dream of writing, the stories that I compose beautifully in my mind as I drive or do the dishes.

When I sit down to the computer, I sort through the thoughts in my head… and do something else entirely.

My last several pieces on Medium, not all published yet, haven’t been my best, and I’m pretty sure it’s because while I type one thing, I am considering the opportunity lost to writing that short story I was thinking about, or the idea I had for that magazine. I have lost focus, and I think my writing has suffered for it too- plus, some of my recent pieces haven’t been accepted by publications that had accepted my work in the past.

I get it, because I feel it too.

I hope to later share how I escape out of this city where all the streets look interesting, and where I want to see everything and find myself wandering, aimless, not sure what road to start down first.

But for now, I am seeking help.

How do I pick a path and pursue it with passion? How do I pick one goal at the detriment of the others? How do you writers, who have been balancing this act for years, find a way to write freelance and short stories and still manage to publish here?

Do you have designated days of the week? Perhaps I could decide that Monday is for magazines, Wednesdays are for Writing on Medium, and Fridays are for Fiction ambitions.

Or maybe I should put all my ideas in a hat, and pick one at random, and do the best I can on that until I finish it and submit it or publish it here.

Possibly, I could sit down on the weekend and pick something in each category as a goal for the week, and then work on them in the order that strikes me during the week.

I can hope that either a writing pro will come up with something I haven’t thought of to get me out of overload mode or I will try one of my overload escape plans and report back on its effectiveness.

But for now, I will write about my difficulties in writing, and in that way still avoid picking a pathway forward towards my goals.

Edited Note- Check out Thomas Smith’s response to this problem too, as he has some great suggestions for us overloaders.