Four Ways to Stop Overthinking and Start Writing

Hi, all, Jennifer here!

Recently (and by recently I mean currently) I’ve been taking a wonderful course on writing and plotting. Great info. Lots of charts and spreadsheets and romance beats to think about and so forth… Good stuff.

Sort of.

Except that it’s frozen my writing. Yes. Completely stalled it. It’s depressing. Imagine putting your muse in neutral and then gunning the gas pedal. Yeah, and my head hurts too.

The good news is that I’ve slowly been coming out of my funk thanks to the good support and great ideas provided by the lovely ladies here at The Heart-Shaped Glasses blog. So I figured just in case anyone else was going through some similar problems, I’d share some insight on how to combat it and get the muse to start talking again.

There actually is an order to it.

1. Stop plotting and/or thinking about writing all together.  Huh? Yes. I’ve set aside ALL my wonderful notes and outlines and placed them in a folder. Then put that folder in my desk. As soon as I did that, the pressure to create dropped significantly.
2. Take walks, naps or long showers. Why? Because when you’re at your most relaxed state, good things start to brew in your head–including ideas for future books.
3. Read. Better yet, read something that isn’t in your genre. It has helped me remember what I love so much about writing and the joy I get in doing that. (NO plotting or writing books, please!)
4. Look up some story generators. Maybe something will spark your excitement for writing by having some scenarios given to you. Here are a few I’ve liked: http://www.plot-generator.org.uk/ and http://thejohnfox.com/2016/05/story-idea-generator/

I feel immensely better already and have a few ideas that I’m almost ready to start working on. YAY!!

Hope this helps you as well.

Have you ever been in a writing rut? What helped you through it?