The Writer Who Knew Too Much

I've got a passion for story craft. For me, the only thing that can compare to the thrill of writing fiction is learning about writing fiction. I've got a whole shelf full of books on writing. When I go to a conference or workshop I'm looking for the next nugget of wisdom, the next clue to my quest of creating the ultimate reading experience. In the past few years I've filled more notebooks with notes on craft books and symposium lectures than I have on my own novels' world building, character development, and plot outlines.

Uh oh.

The last time I took a creative writing class my professor said I was doing a fantastic job of avoiding using passive voice - at the expense of varying my sentence structure. I needed to relax and just write.

When I face the blank page, my head churns with all the things I need to keep in mind. Tension. Pacing. Character. Beats. Voice. I type one sentence and none of that is happening. Maybe I should just go read "Character and Viewpoint" again.

No! I've been doing too much learning about writing and not enough writing itself, so much so that I've created very high expectations for myself but I haven't been building the skills to meet them.

Any suggestions?

I have a few for myself.

1. Spend more time writing. Always a good thing.
2. If you have to learn something related to writing, try studying up on some of the other skills you're going to need as an author, like marketing and public speaking.
3. Let the first draft be horrible. Just get the words on the page, worry about everything else later.

Wish me luck!