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6 Writing Habits to Prevent Overthinking
Victoria A. Witkewitz
18 June 2026
We want to make our writing memorable, enjoyable, and leave a lasting impression and hopefully some wrinkled and curled pages to show the wear and tear of a book well-loved. This, however, can potentially lead to overthinking, which can be a deterrent to how authors get started on their story. This article breaks down the writing process to empower authors.
1. LAY THE FOUNDATION
A story is broken into the beginning, middle, and end. Think of your story as if you were writing the playbill to an opera in three acts. Begin with the main attraction without elaborating on details or delving into wording at this stage. Lay the foundation for what happens in each portion of the story in the simplest terms. For example:
ACT ONE: Johnny moves to Paris to pursue his career.
ACT TWO: Johnny falls in love with a French woman.
ACT THREE: Johnny has to move back home to take care of his mother, testing a long-distance relationship.
Now, add your characters, their roles, and goals. Create a short bulleted list to summarize the story points. Then generate the story details around them as you write. Create your Critical Key Chapter Moments in your writing document to focus on the important chapter details as you write. Then get your fingers ready for some exercise to start pounding away at the keyboard.
2. ELABORATE THE DETAILS
A story can be as short or as long as you deem necessary to craft what you want to tell. Unfold the story tenure by adding pertinent details to elaborate on the story. This is the process of building your narrative arc. I call this accessorizing. While a plain white tee and jeans are a great starting point, adding a blazer, earrings, and a bracelet will enhance your outfit to make a statement. As with accessorizing an outfit, the key is to create balance without creating too many elements that contrast the story. In other words, go bold in writing your story without detracting from the main objective.
3. LET THE DETAILS FLOW NATURALLY
It's best for water to flow downstream rather than forcing the water to flow upstream. By exploring different avenues of thought, your writing will find an authenticity, style, tone, and flavor of its own. Give yourself permission to explore, invent, and create, even if the original intent changes. The joy of writing is letting the story take its own adventure that speaks back to you. Your ability to remain boundless will steer your creative pursuit in the right direction. Build extra resting and reflection periods away from your manuscript to revisit how the story is progressing.
4. WRITE WITH GRAMMAR CHECK OFF
Minimize the amount of distractions by turning off the tools (at least for the moment) to get your thoughts down. When we see the little red squiggly lines, we can get pulled into another direction to turn on our editing and proofreading brain, but that's not what you want to achieve at this stage. Focus on allowing the words that support the major plot points to take shape.
5. PULL BACK ON PERFECTIONISM
Say what you mean to say, then write it. Worry about refining wording, sentence structure, spelling, and punctuation at a later time. Being too critical of ourselves can prevent us from writing. Jodi Picoult's quote is a game changer: "You can always edit a bad page. You can't edit a blank page."
6. It's not fatal, it's not final
Don't think of your first writing draft as your final manuscript. Like painting a room, you may need to spackle, apply a primer, a first coat, a second coat, and touch-up. There may be several iterations you will write before you determine the final version, and that's a-okay. We can get hung up on thinking we have to create the best and final edition in the first few drafts, but the story is done when it's done. Apply the no harm, no foul rule.
FINAL PUNCTUATION
The key to an effective and fluid writing process is to allow the words to flow without restraint. Setting a framework without rigid constraints will help you explore the story you want to tell and quite possibly, take you on an adventure that will surprise you. Remember, you can always revisit your story any time to button up the details. Be an open book-open to possibilities, open to exploration, open to knowing you have the power to write a unique story waiting for someone to read and experience. Expand your wings and soar.
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