Analysis Paralysis and the Writer.

Analysis Paralysis and the Writer. 08/14/2010

Wonders how much fun it might be to do research for a romance novel at 64 with a 70 year old to try out my scenes on.

Now I know why, when you begin to write the first draft of your novel you should not edit, just keep moving forward and allow the creativity to flow until you type, ‘The End’. Then take a break, and then you can edit up to 300 times.

I just condensed chapters one and the unfinished chapter two into the one chapter, edited it and submitted it to two very trusted friends and writers for a proof read and suddenly I am overcome with analysis paralysis and I am thinking I have written the new world's words worst opening line and I keep anxiously checking my email to see if my friends think I should kill the novel or the heroine/hero before the end of chapter two. Lol J.

So what should I do?

Listen to the advice of the expert and my own knowledge as an artist. View the work as a large project, view it in its entirety, and move on and work over the entire project, do not stop and fiddle in any one area. Time enough, to fiddle at the end.

In painting, this is the difference between the amateur and the professional. The amateur wants to work tight and do the detail at the beginning, the professional does broad confident loose large brushwork block ins. Yes, I can do this, I can stop focusing in one small spot in the painting (I mean short story), lol, I can quit with the crippling analysis paralysis and move on. J. We are all able to write.

This is how I teach people to paint and it is how I am teaching myself to write novels.

1/ Plan the work.

2/ Block the work in loosely.

3/. Refine and correct.

4/ Detail the work.

I know if I stick to that order of progression, stay confident, believe ‘I can do it’, my stories will work. I hope I can inspire others to give their story writing a voice too. J.