Don't Over Think It

I am very prone to over-thinking. A lot. And the major problem with over-thnking is that you can fall into the forbidden trap of paralysis by analysis. Where I have admittedly been on many occasion. Highly recommend not goin down that road. It really stops us from progressing.

If you are spiritual at all, or not, the Taoist and Buddhist will say there is no wrong decision and no such thing as good or bad. There is just life. There's really no wrong decision other than not taking action. Like physics, like attracts like and those in motion stay in motion.

I finally started writing my novel in October. But I got a little stuck with my initial idea. It wasn't working. Which took me several days to accept. So I thought about some key concepts to creativity– which I learned from my acting and improv classes. Get out of your head and into your body– stop playing ideas. Ideas are like dirt. They are cheap. Let it go. Be present. Listen to your partner and add to what they have given to the situation. (In this case listen to the characters on the page– they tell the story).

1 November was the official start of NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). It's an annual challenge that's been going on since 1999, whereby to 'win', you must write 50,000 words in the month of November. That's 1,667 words a day. That is a solid amount. For reference, Stephen King writes 2,000 words a day. 50,000 words is the considered minimum amount for a novel.

I decided to do the challenge. I didn't think about it too long– a few minutes– and then I committed. I signed up. Wrote for an hour and logged in my day's word count. I've been doing every day since.

Don't over think it. Lesson #1: I said I'd write a book by the end of the year. And now I am doing it. Every day. No matter how I feel. Just sit down and write.

Don't over think it. Lesson #2: Don't get caught up in the details and description of things. This is a first draft. Focus on the central story and the characters. Don't get lost in creating descriptive scenes and bringing the book alive. That's what the second and third and twelfth draft is for.

I'm not over thinking it and I am having a good time amassing this blob of clay. And I look forward to reshaping it in the subsequent drafts.

Life is truly lighter when you get out of your head and don't over think things.

Like Tom Cruise said in Top Gun: Maverick: "Don't think, just do."

I am. And I am having so much fun doing it.