[Stylist] Overthinking when writing

[Bridgit Kuenning-Pollpeter]

Vejas,

I'm the same way. I work better with a deadline. I'm in my head a lot about
my writing. I like to have a structure and style figured out well before I
actually sit and write. But this is not always condusive to generating work
consistently. In my defense, most pieces I've had published happened after I
created a structure in my head and thought out images. But, I'm not a
disciplined writer. I certainly don't sit and write every day, regardless of
an idea or not. So, I really have no answers for you, but I do completely
understand.

Bridgit

-----Original Message-----
From: Stylist <stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Vejas Vasiliauskas
via Stylist
Sent: Monday, November 4, 2019 12:39 PM
To: stylist at nfbnet.org
Cc: Vejas Vasiliauskas <alpineimagination at gmail.com>
Subject: [Stylist] Overthinking when writing

Hi, 
I hope you have all had a great weekend.
I feel that I often engage in two types of creative writing: prompts and
assignments that need to be done for class, and also writing for fun. I want
to write for fun to keep it up and not just limit myself to assignments. 
I actually have found the school assignments to be easier to do, because
they must be done, have a deadline and have some kind of structural
requirement. 
But when I write for myself, I find that I often overthink things. I've
heard it's good to just write and see what comes out, but it doesn't always
seem to be working because I tend to overthink while doing even that. For
example, I might have a general plot idea, and start the first few
sentences, then tell myself it's realistically not going to go anywhere,
even though in some cases that probably isn't true. At other times, I might
start a story with a name of a character (let's say Eliza) and as I'm
writing I might think, "No, actually I think I want to use another name like
Macy instead." That then makes me go back and I lose my train of thought. 
The reason I really want to keep up with writing is because I just feel it's
a more productive thing to do than go online when I'm done with
homework/studying, and it's a skill I just don't want to lose because when I
. have a firm idea, I love it. I still read books as well, but miss when I
was younger and just wrote things without overthinking. 
Has anyone experienced problems with overthinking when writing? I hope I'm
making sense! 
Vejas   
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