How to Stop Overthinking as a Writer

Overthinking is the hidden enemy of creativity. It locks up imagination, stops spontaneity, and turns the fun of exploring ideas into a cycle of doubt and self-criticism. In this article, we’ll take a look at how you can stop overthinking and free yourself from negative thoughts in order to write better and write more.

Be kind to yourself

To begin with, we must be kinder to ourselves as writers. When we overthink and criticize ourselves while chiseling every letter onto paper, we can be extremely unkind. Even less kind than we would be to our peers. Putting yourself down at every step of the creative process is counterintuitive. It won't help you produce better work. If anything, it will hold you back from letting your thoughts soar and putting words on paper. Let yourself write without judging yourself every single step of the way.

Let go of negative thoughts; focus on the task at hand and let your mind wander.

"The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt," — Sylvia Plath

No matter what you do for a living, you're a writer.

It doesn’t matter what your job title is, or what you studied in school, you write every day, in some form, whether it be email, texts, or social posts. You write; that makes you a writer. Your only task as a writer is to write, so instead of finding excuses why you shouldn’t, or could never write, go do it instead.

Seperate your editing from your writing

On a similar note, a big mistake many writers make is editing while writing—the biggest manifestation of overthinking in a writer’s world. If you fret over every single word that pops into your mind (Is it the right word? Is there a better word to use? Let me open a thesaurus…) you will never get any work done as a writer. There is a reason we have editors; a second pair of eyes not only sees more, but relieves the writer from dissecting their own work.

But even if you self-edit, you should make a conscious choice to separate the two roles: write first, then wait before taking out your red pen to go through the manuscript again as an editor. Let what you wrote breathe a bit before coming in to rework it.

Always remember that even the most famous writers started somewhere. They also started with a salad of notes and rough first drafts, and built their great works from there. Good writing takes a great amount of time.

“The first draft of anything is shit.” — Ernest Hemingway

Overthinking comes from the fear of being judged. When we worry about every detail, every possible outcome, or what others might think, we create a mental trap for ourselves as writers. Questions like “Is this good enough to publish?” or “What if no one reads this?” may feel appropriate, but they often make us freeze. Creativity needs freedom. Ideas are rarely perfect when they first appear. They are often rough and incomplete. Simply expecting them to be fully formed before starting to unpack them is a sure way to get stuck. By the time an idea feels “ready” to be shared, the original spark that made it exciting may already be gone. And if we never feel ready to hit publish, we will never know what others think of our work, or more importantly, what our work means to others.

Even Hemingway knew that the key to writing well is getting it out as a first draft and revising it from there. Waiting for something to be flawless often means nothing ever gets done. So don’t overthink your writing the first time around. Get it on paper, give it some time, and work from there.

Find ways to enjoy the process

Writing can be a very difficult and fragile process, especially for an overthinker. In order to stay sane while writing, it’s important to find ways to enjoy the process. Try new things. Let intuition take the reins for a while. Throw away the rules and write freely. Perhaps try the writing habits of your favorite authors to see what works for you.

Having your own habits is fine, and it can usually be very beneficial for productivity to write in the same place at the same time, for example, but if you feel stuck in your routine, it may be time to switch things up a bit.

You can stop your overthinking by trying new things. For example, if you always write alone in your bed you can try going to a café in another part of town to see what thoughts that inspires. Or if you usually write after work in the evening, you can try waking up earlier to see how productive you are at sunrise. Another option may be to join a writing club or online community to share your work.

Give yourself time to write

Overthinking isn’t the only challenge writers face, of course. It’s also a lack of time. Trying to fit your writing career into your life next to a full-time career doing something else that you need in order to make a living is difficult. You are not alone—many writers have struggled to make ends meet while needing to feed their family.

However, if you make it a point to find the time, you will be successful. Consistently put that time aside to write and you will make progress. Even if it is during your 30-minute commute to work or an hour in the evening after you have finished all the other things you had to do, you should congratulate yourself for giving yourself some writing time.

Make writing a habit

Along those same lines, writing becomes easier once you’ve built good writing habits. Putting aside time every day, preferably around the same time every day, and eliminating distractions, especially distractions in the form of negative internal monologues disparaging every sentence you write, helps reduce overthinking.

A practical way to overcome overthinking is writing in timed sessions and writing often. Sit down, set a timer, and start writing with one goal only: write freely until the timer ends. The result will be a rough draft. You can then take a break and revisit your draft, edit it a bit, and share it. See how it makes you feel to share your work with your community.

Better a diamond with a flaw than a pebble without one. — Chinese proverb

Overthinking is the result of a fear of constant judgment. Social media, performance metrics, and comparison make us anxious. “Will people like this? Will I be judged? What if it fails?” Creativity needs us to let go of these fears. Expressing ourselves through writing helps ideas take shape. And writing is a constant practice, a habit.

You may make mistakes, but mistakes are not the end. They are steps toward improvement. As you repeat this task, writing will become easier as overthinking shrinks away.

Share your work

First drafts, rough sketches, and prototypes are not failures just because they are imperfect. If everyone waited for perfection before creating anything, we would not have much of the art, writing, or inventions we have today. Overthinking equates imperfection with failure and stops us from taking the first step, sharing our ideas no matter how rough.

Overthinking tries to eliminate flaws before what you have created stands on its own, but your ideas and your work are ready to be shared before you feel they are ready to be put out there. Without action, ideas remain stuck. Waiting for the perfect version of something you have written before sharing guarantees no one will read it.

Perfect is the enemy of good. — Voltaire

Creativity is a process. Put something out there and see how the audience reacts. Overthinking does not prevent failure. It prevents doing anything at all. An artist staring at a blank canvas, a writer stuck on the first paragraph, or a designer delaying a prototype are all trapped by overthinking.

Sharing your work, no matter how imperfect, is what starts the process. You share your work, you get feedback, you see how your work resonates with others, and you write more and share your work again. Feedback and discussion give ideas new perspectives and energy. Overthinking keeps ideas isolated, stopping them from becoming what they could be.

Give them the third-best to go on with; the second-best comes too late; the best never comes. — Sir Robert Watson-Watt

In conclusion, overthinking blocks creativity. Focusing too much on judgment and perfection traps ideas before they can be tested or shared. Creativity requires action, engagement, and courage. Share your ideas, involve others, and let them grow. Start with what you have, share your work with your community, and see how your ideas develop. For practice, start writing and sharing your thoughts on Fika.