Over-thinking It

First of all--holy crap! I didn't know a day of blogging could make you exhausted, but then last Wednesday happened. My IWSG post had the most views and comments that I've ever had (as of today, 61 comments! 61!), and since I spent the whole day also visiting dozens and dozens of other blogs, I had to sleep in the next day and on Friday I was kind of burnt out so I didn't even write a blog post. I also really appreciate everyone's thoughts and advice on my setting/research insecurities. The general consensus pretty much went along with what I felt in my gut in the first place--keep doing research but ultimately, be true to the story. The details I was worried about shouldn't be enough to have anyone calling me out on it.

So it seems that I over-think things. A lot. I suppose that's better than NOT thinking about things, since at least I'm paying attention to the details in my own story, but if you do it too much, it can weigh you down to the point where you're not getting anything done.

My problem right now is that I'm over-thinking my entire editing process. I've tried several different techniques (the editing hat!) to try to organize myself, and it just doesn't seem to work. I don't feel like I'm getting anything done. And yes, part of that is just making myself sit down and actually do the work, but when I actually do sit down, I don't even know where to start.

I spend more time thinking about editing than actually doing it. And I don't mean brainstorming, productive type of thinking. Trying to figure out what to do usually just leads to frustration and eventually giving up. But NOT working on it makes me even more frustrated. And if I go too long without doing any writing, it usually leads to depression, which makes it harder to start writing again. So it's a vicious cycle.

Maybe my underlying problem is being indecisive. I really just need to sit down and pick something to work on. Anything. Rewriting particular sentences I didn't like. Working on the subplot. Searching for words I overused and cutting them. Rearranging scenes in a chapter. I just need to pick something and not actually think about it. Usually I get too caught up in it, for example--if I choose to do the search and cut thing, I'll think to myself, well, what if I end up cutting this scene later? Aren't I wasting my time right now? Or I'll think, I can't work on this part until I figure out this other part, but that other part is really hard so I don't want to work on it right now.

I think I get so caught up in thinking about editing that it gets frustrating to the point where I don't want to work on it at all. I really just need to stop thinking about it, and just do it. So that's what I'm going to try today. We'll see how it goes.