I’m a creative. There’s something fun about the title “creative” for what I do — the fact that I write books.
But behind that one word is the reality that a lot of work goes into writing a book. Brainstorming. Crafting characters. Fast Drafting. Rewriting –and repeat, repeat, repeat. Rewriting is a major part of writing a book. Edits equals rewrites. Oh, did I mention marketing? How could I forget social media and interviews and guest blog posts?
And, truth is, as I said before “living the dream means doing the work.”
And sometimes … the stress of the work strangles my creativity.
I’m in a staring contest with my deadline — and I blink.
That’s when I talk to one of my writing friends. One of the ones who knows me best and who is on speed dial. The kind who will say, “Just write the story, Beth. Stop overthinking everything and just write the story.”
Maybe you’re a creative like me. Maybe you’re an engineer like my husband was before he switched careers and went to medical school. But no matter what you do, we all come to the point when we need to stop thinking “how do we do this?”
We need to relax. Trust that we know how. And do it.
In Your Words: What helps you stop overthinking the “how” so that you succeed at what you do?
In Others' Words: Confident to Do It Well http://bit.ly/2IYfcx8 #quotes #confidence Click To Tweet 'We never do anything well till we cease to think about the manner of doing it.' quote by William Hazlitt http://bit.ly/2IYfcx8 #confidence #writing Click To Tweet
Comments 9
Do or do not. There is no try.
– Yoda
I so agree, Andrew!
Author
Ah, the wisdom of Yoda. 🙂
I had to take TRY out of my vocabulary. I either do something and win or fail. And even if I fail, I learn something.
Author
Pat, you’ve talked about this before. The question is: Have you TAUGHT on this?
That’s excellent advice–don’t overthink, just write the story or do whatever it is. Planting a garden recently or putting words on a page, I realize seeds won’t grow if they’re still in the package NEXT to the garden soil, but not in the ground. Our best stories won’t be born if the thoughts roll around in our heads but don’t get put on the paper, even in rough form. The roughest first draft of any life project is better than the most perfect but unaccomplished plan! (I’m almost surprising myself with these statements.)
Author
Dee! I love the gardening/seed analogy! That’s a blog post all its own! 🙂
This was good to read today. Sometimes the non-creative side is so overwhelming that it steals the creative joy. Thanks for posting this.
Author
Susan: I’m glad you were encouraged by today’s post! 🙂