Skills of a Writer
How to handle creative overwhelm?
I'm working on a chapter within an on going saga that has a lot more worldbuilding in it than I had originally planned on. Ideas that I loved in concept, and had a lot of fun coming up with while exploring the possibilities, but don't really know how to frame within an engaging narrative.
Put another way, I'm getting overwhelmed trying to manage all these ideas I had while sticking to a pretty strict publishing schedule.
A deadline which I have yet to maintain even once since I've started publishing this series. Which means on top of the overwhelm, I'm also dealing with self disappointment eating away at my confidence.
While I am getting better at the writing and editing side of things, I'm still struggling with the mental side of it. Too often I get caught up in anxieties, worrying about if anyone is going to like my ideas, and trying to convince myself it shouldn't matter what others say since I'm writing these stories for me.
But, I'd also like writing to be my career, so if people don't like my ideas, than I don't really have a job as a writer, now do I? Which only adds to the overwhelm, worsening the very problem I'm trying to overcome.
I don't really know what the answer to this problem is, so all I can really do is pick at it, try a few things here and there, and see if any of them help me to reduce the mental load so I can more easily write and edit.
In the case of this chapter I'm working on, my biggest problem is that it's gotten way too long for me to comfortably edit, along with more worldbuilding that expanded further than I thought it would. It's a lot, so what I'm thinking of doing is isolating each section, and treating it like it is it's own complete story. Forget about the rest of the chapter for now since trying to manage the full thing is what's triggering my anxieties.
I know from past experiences that when I get this overwhelmed, pushing through doesn't work. It just beats me down until I can't even stand to look at my own story anymore.
What I need is to take things slow.
Which is itself an anxiety inducing notion because it kills me inside to be moving along at a snails pace.
But some progress is better than no progress.
On days like this, I think the best way to handle the overwhelm is to pick small goals that are still achievable, and go easy on myself.
Well, I should say that on days when not making progress is part of the overwhelm, having small but achievable goals can help to mitigate that overwhelm.
