And are all of them usable? Today is Wednesday, and according to my new blog schedule, it's time for me to post about a helpful website I've come across recently. Well, Monday, when I was out blogging around, I read a post that stopped me in my tracks. It was all about how we suffer from information overload, which can cause us to lose our creativity.
Jennifer Shirk shared here recent experience with trying to write while processing all the different things she'd read on the Internet. I have felt the exact same way, and instead of me trying to explain it, go read it here.
What about you? Have you read so many conflicting opinions that you second guess your writing constantly? So much so that you're stalled? It really isn't a good place to be. I agree with Jennifer's take on the matter: TRUST YOUR GUT!
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Way Too Many Shoes!
And are all of them usable? Today is Wednesday, and according to my new blog schedule, it's time for me to post about a helpful website I've come across recently. Well, Monday, when I was out blogging around, I read a post that stopped me in my tracks. It was all about how we suffer from information overload, which can cause us to lose our creativity.
Jennifer Shirk shared here recent experience with trying to write while processing all the different things she'd read on the Internet. I have felt the exact same way, and instead of me trying to explain it, go read it here.
What about you? Have you read so many conflicting opinions that you second guess your writing constantly? So much so that you're stalled? It really isn't a good place to be. I agree with Jennifer's take on the matter: TRUST YOUR GUT!
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21 comments:
Will, I know I've gotten a few critiques that made me stop and think about how much I was going to keep and how much I was going to change. I think there can be way too much critiquing on a piece.
I've read a lot of conflicting things as well. I totally agree with you. I try to just go with it and worry about how it's all going to work together with the rewrite and polishing. Sometimes it's really hard to just blow all those thoughts away though. It's always a challenge to write. :)
I sometimes get a bout of this when I leave a writer's conference because it's such a huge amount of information in a such a short window of time. It can be overwhelming for sure.
I'm rereading The ARt of War for Writers as I FINALLY finish some edits on one manuscript and begin planning for a new one. And with everything I read, whether it's in this book or on the internet, I'm constantly questioning if I succeeded in the almost-polished manuscript instead of looking forward to the next.
I totally agree. Too much information can be overwhelming. Somehow we have to filter down what we really need to know.
I agreed with her post too. Great advice! :O)
Sometimes the not-know and learn- as- you- go method works best for me. Too much information gives me a headache (-:
That was a great post! At a certain point in our learning we have to trust ourselves and just plain write:) It feels like freedom!
Opinions are just that...a fellow human being's thoughts. While I agree with arming yourself with as much information as possible, I also am a firm believer in forming YOUR OWN opinion.
However, there is a BIG difference between jumping wildly into something all puffed up on your own opinion and treading confidently into something armed with your own well crafted (and well educated) opinion. I prefer to do that latter.
Absolutely - that's the double-edged sword of the Internet. You can learn sooo much, and then learn toooo much! TRUST YOUR GUT!!!
Yes, loved that post by Jennifer! I agree trust your gut. Instinct is directly related to our gift as writers. I plan on trusting my gut a whole lot more in the future.
I've definitley had moments where thigns I'd been reading lately made me doubt my writing. In the end, I just had to suck it up, buckle down, and keep writing. My mantra at such moments, "Write now; worry later." Or, occasionally, "Don't choke."
Lately, that happens to me before I start writing. When I'm considering an idea and I stall and stall because I know I'm going to spending the next year with it, so I want to be sure it's all the things I keep reading that a story idea should be. And then it happens when I'm looking at my openings.
I've experienced this on the internet, at conferneces. Sometimes you've just got to close the shutters.
I have!! And it has made me sometimes afraid to just write and I've cut back on the number of opinions I ask for now.
This is were that saying about throwing a bowl full of spaghetti against the wall is so true. Only what's important will (hopefully) stick. ;)
I'm thinking it might be better to pick ONE area you know you're weak in and just work on that at one time.
When you start looking every where at once you're never going to be able to move forward. Which is pretty much what happened to me. LOL
I've been that way over so many things that I'm starting to get confident in my own opinions in self-defense.
Well, that was ever-so-cool, and reassuring at the same time. I'm on this deadline, tomorrow-- to submit to an anthology, and I'm overthinking it all, I know. Time to step back and let go, I believe.... another wonderful post, Susan! Many thanks!
L.
Yup, I've gone through this.
Yeah, since I was born with the inability to skim when I read, I finally figured out I had to stop reading EVERYTHING I came across. Although I always got great tips and advice from whatever I read, it was sucking up all my writing time!
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