How do you Avoid Getting Overwhelmed?

[Sion]

Stories appear on the surface to be simple but in truth are actually really complicated. Analysis Paralysis is real and intense when it comes to stories. So many rules, so many cliches to avoid. Ignorance really is bliss.

What are some tips/advice that you guys can share about not getting overwhelmed and getting your stories out of your head and written?

[zircher]

The anti-social vacation: Take a day off from work. DO NOT let the family know. Go to the quiet room at the local library and write for eight hours straight (or until your muse is satisfied.) Love my wife, kids, and dogs. But, given the choice, they will suck every free minute you have. Sometimes you have to make a hole in your schedule just for your self.

[Sion]

The anti-social vacation: Take a day off from work. DO NOT let the family know. Go to the quiet room at the local library and write for eight hours straight (or until your muse is satisfied.) Love my wife, kids, and dogs. But, given the choice, they will suck every free minute you have. Sometimes you have to make a hole in your schedule just for your self.

Libraries are great for that. That is a really good suggestion. Do you type it out or freehand. I find that since I rarely free write anything down nowadays by changing it up and writing the notes or scenes on a notepad actually stirs up my creativity because it is more foreign to me than the Microsoft Word document.

[zircher]

I'm a big fan of One Note and Google Docs. So, I write on a laptop or PC. The cloud based solution allows for me to work on texts anywhere off or on line. I still have the journal for analog solutions like doodling.

[adembroski]

I haven't posted here in a while, and I'm sorry for that. I miss it.

Anyways, for me, it's very simple: have a plan and stick too it.

There are authors like Stephan King and Bernard Cornwell (my personal favorite) who will advise writers to just sit down and write. This doesn't work for me, I'm not on their level. I need a plan of attack, and I need to start as small as possible. Central conflict, premise line, whatever you want to call it; begin tiny. Very very tiny, then build out. As long as you're moving from one small thing to the next small thing, bit by bit, you'll find yourself through it in no time.

My favorite story planning guide is John Truby's Anatomy of Story. It's fantastic for getting you to think much more deeply about your story, even if you don't use the specific steps. It's geared toward screenwriters but it's perfectly good for other mediums. Story is story. There are plenty of others.

The only thing I'll warn against is simplistic "N-Act" structures. The three-act structure is a construct meant for long plays, in order to give the audience a break. It has no actual use in story construction. It's way to vague to help you construct your story unless you're already one of those brilliant minds who can just flow, like King and Cornwell (and I'd bet even they end up simply using their first draft the same way we mere mortals use a well-planned outline).

EDIT: Also, prowritingaid.com is an awesome resource for editing. It covers a lot of the technical aspects of writing so you don't have to spend so much time hunting down problems and more time perfecting your prose.

[JediSoth]

If you're really concerned about just getting the story out and on paper, then don't worry about rules and cliches, just get the story out; turn off your internal editor.

After all, that's what a good round of edits is for: getting rid of the cliches and making sure the writing adheres to rules. I've seen writers with a great idea for a novel work on Chapter 1 for YEARS tweaking and re-writing trying to get it just right. They do all that work, and have only one chapter to show for it.