Don't Overthink It

Every now and then, my husband tosses around the idea of writing a book. He's got a great idea for a dystopian story, but my guess is that he'll probably never write it. Why? Because he wants to figure everything out before he starts it.

Writing a book doesn't work that way.

Oh, don't get me wrong . . . you need to have some kind of a handle on research. It would never do to set your story in Minneapolis then write that the Columbia River runs through it. You'd need to know that it's the Mississippi. But you wouldn't need to know all the species of fish that live in it, what the water composition is made of, or the ratio of silt to sand to rock.

Too much research straitjackets a writer.

Maybe, toward the end of the story, if you had your main character go fishing in the Mississippi, then you could check out what kind of a fish he might land. But guess what? You can cross that bridge if and when you get to it.

Too many writer wannabes stall out when they start overthinking the process. Writing is art. Yeah, there are some rules you need to know to make things coherent, but other than that, it's subjective.

Don't let the fear of imperfection keep you from trying.