Learning to Write Without Overthinking
「“The more you read, the more you can't write " 」
Once in a while, you might find yourself stuck like I did due to Information overload. For those who don't know about it, that is a state when you read and receive too much information in a short period of time. These days, it’s easy to fall into that state given the nature of our interconnected world and easily accessible information. This is the recurrent topic in my life that I keep having issues with. As for these days, my source of these comes from the recent theological study and various things I read to improve my writings and train of thoughts.
There are times in my life when I feel like I was stuck in my own web of information unable to untangle the knots. As I got stuck in that spider web of information, I became paralyzed. It got worse when I started to be a lot more critical to myself.
Here’s the thing, the more I read quality works, the more I realized my own shortcomings. I revised and re-read all of my past and present works and realized that I have grown but not in the way I wanted it to be. Perhaps, it is my own harsh judgment but in the present moment, I think I could do better.
Although the thing is, my goal for a long time has always been documenting life. That is for the reason that I can't rely on my own memory much. And I wanted to find spaces where I am not limited to just 240 characters or less. So, this is where I ended up growing and sharing my life for the last 8 years.
And despite that this has been an online journal of mine, there’s that sense of weight to write with some sense with that kind of invisible responsibility and when it comes to writing on hive, I don’t want to just “shit post”, though this is subjective. To me, I like putting some effort into what I am putting out there.
Conventionally, writings can be divided into 4 types which some of you might be aware of. It’s narrative, descriptive, expository and argumentative(persuasive). But there are more to this branch and you can actually combine a couple of writing styles into one. This year, somehow I want to delve into this very basic concept of writing and actually grasp the idea of those. As I notice that sometimes I tend to actually mix them too much, the message I am trying to convey can be a bit blurred.
Whenever I am writing something for the public, I rush to edit and click publish. I rush to publish rather than assessing some of its possible logical fallacies or perhaps even the purpose of sharing said topics. But when you think too much about technicalities like I do as well, sometimes it is its own result of information overload and makes you stuck.
For a long time, I followed this concept, halfway in, halfway out. While I see the merit of it, in reality, to actually achieve something you have to truly believe in what you do. This is something I also recently learned from Luffy, that main character on One piece. He simply believes in his dream to become not just a pirate but the king of the pirates. He wanted to find that One Piece which eventually grants him the title to the King of all seas. Despite everyone saying it is impossible, he does it anyway.
Where am I going with this? Well, just like Luffy, I am learning not to overthink. He doesn’t second guess his decision and believes in whatever he does. He is very adaptable and always improves in each of his encounters. It’s not always perfect and sometimes he’s almost defeated too. But he’s always one step closer to his dreams even when the dream itself seems pretty impossible to achieve.
Perhaps, not everything can be so carefully written and crafted. Sometimes, what matters is the clear message behind what we’re sharing or documenting. From this onward, I am striving to write in that direction where I don’t want to overwhelm anybody and am going to constantly ask myself these simple questions, “ What is the purpose of writing/sharing this with anyone?”- a question I failed to ask all these years while actually writing here.
I like to keep my writing as raw as possible. As close to the structure of the thoughts that formed it in my head, and as close to those ideas as I can maintain and articulate in the translation from thought to text.
Sometimes there is a required edit, or I will re-read post publishing, cringe (harshly) then make a few edits for clarity, or to include a missing word or phrase, or repeated character.
I am flawed, and so is my writing. I can read it out aloud to make it more refined, but I want to get those uncut diamonds out of my head and onto the page. Once it is out, and immutable - well, then, I can make revisions, and for anyone who cares to look and see - they can identify that I am capable of correcting my own mistakes and improving.
"I am flawed and so is my writing". Thanks, Imma start repeating it like a mantra until my writing block finally disappears. Less than 30 posts in four years of running a Hive blog, urgh, the cringe is real.
The flaws in myself and my writing, are what makes it interesting, I think.
More importantly, they make your writing look authentic. There's no way anyone could accuse you of using LLMs to create your posts.
(which is yet another reason I keep following your blog)
It is so easy to find unauthentic, non LLM content, too. It is easy to spot. You can find passion in the way something is written, or it can be boring as bat shit and formulaic.
One of the people who would edit some technical writing I did in my old job got me the greatest secret santa present, it was "PLAIN ENGLISH". I laughed and laughed and laughed, but it did definitely help me with clarifying intent in professional writing.
I write for me on HIVE, and if people happen to like it, that's awesome, and I'm grateful. For my own writing, I prefer for it to be flowery, poetic, and evocative. I'm not good at plain English, a lot of the time.
I sometimes fear I alienate people with my own diverse interests, but I have come to the conclusion today, in a discord chat that I am a part of, that I come to enjoy seeing all the sides of a person. If they post the one thing consistently, I am finding myself start to grow tired of the content, so I appreciate that people can share their whole-self because all of it is valuable and interesting.
In the age of AI, being flawed can be quite an advantage. It can show authenticity because AI written post from what I have observed tend to be very generic. They don't even use any cultural references and nuances that AI struggles to actually include those. For example, there's quite a difference between ESL and a native speaker writing. But with AI, those differences almost nonexistent. Even from what I understand too, even some of well-known writers and NY best-seller for instance break grammar rules.
And it is fine to break those rules, as long as the intent can still be understood! :)
I like to write about what interests me. But I also like it when someone writes comments on my posts.
That's where the discussion happens!
Drafting your thoughts may be difficult because of a lots of information being received by our mind but it is more authentic and more meaningful
I never knew there was such a thing as overload of information, which can make one to forget everything they've known. wow! We learn everyday
You should try it 😂 try to learn different things all at once for extended period of hours. You won't have any type of retention at all. It's that bad.
Really! I think I'll just crash if I do that😂.. I don't even know how to multitask
What you've written is very interesting. You know what? I'm going through the same thing right now, as I have to start writing my thesis. I've read so much that I don't know what to write or how to do it. Not only that, but I've reached a point of mental and creative block. I've tried writing down little notes every time I read something, using a method called Zettelkasten, but I'm fed up with it now. Maybe I'm just mentally exhausted, I don't know.
P.S.: I like your writing style.
I think you need some break. Write when you want to and gather every little things with notes. I find that having notes is certainly helpful especially when you want to actually write a huge chunk of information. Essentially, you're like 20% closer to finish your writing. All you have to do is rest and go back again when you feel ready to write it out.
I'm not sure that Luffy is the best example to follow, but I get the idea :-D I'm still catching up on the manga, I had forgotten about it for a while. I'm still in the Egghead-Arc.
My problem with reading too much is that my head gets full of thoughts, and I can't find a clear structure of arguments. That is really annoying. If I just write it when it comes to mind, and read other articles afterwards, it's easier. So, I try to first write my article, and then get to reading and curating.
Reading is more difficult for me than writing. I try to read as much as I can, and adding Keychain to my phone helped. But it's still hard to really follow up on all the content created of people I like. It's usually just going down the "following" for a few minutes, and whoever is in there has a good chance to be read, if it captures me.
The purpose I see in writing is development of thoughts, structuring my mind. And channeling stress, anxiety and so many other emotions that don't do me any good if I don't find an art to express them in. Writing is my favorite, though music comes quite close.
I've been binge watching One Piece to understand it and honestly, I need to be more like Luffy, a little more carefree and brave. Although, my favorite character in the series is Zoro, a bit skeptical, ambitious and doesn't like taking the shortcut.
Honestly, writing to me is like speaking out what I needed to say more coherently because if I were to speak relying only on what I know and directly, it will be jumbled as I see things to be more interconnected that others might not see it. So, before I talk about it, I tend to write it first 😄
Zoro couldn't take a shortcut even if he wanted to, he always gets lost instantly 🤣 he's a great character indeed.
Writing does help a lot putting thoughts in order ane hence the verbal argumentation. That's a good point!
Are you crazy? It will stay on the blockchain FOREVER. With all your tyops!
rigt?! I really hope this stay on the blockchain Forever because at some point, I have to tell somebody, the entire history of my 20's 🤣