Taking Those First Steps Without Being Overwhelmed by the Long Path Ahead...

[Geobukseon]

Hey,

For those of you who use MDD to write or draw, how do you manage to do so?  Every time I try to write down an idea I have, I usually get overwhelmed by the thought that 'it's been done before' or 'how childish it is' to the point where I can't stand to look out what I've written on a page.  I can never stand a few seconds at a sentence before I start editing like crazy until I erase the whole thing.  My inner critique feeds off of how beautiful the ideas in my head are and uses it as a constant measuring stick to beat my brain over the head with to the point where I just wanna daydream instead of being productive.

It's a big wall that stands between me and control of my MDD and is suffocating me non-stop.  Can anyone help?

[Ulaan Gom]

Hey Geobukseon,

That's a really good question, and one that I honestly can't say I entirely have an answer for myself. I often find myself in similar situations all the time, where I'll first have a great idea that flows so beautifully and naturally as MD, but then is difficult to really articulate and put together in a way that feels nice or captures the same feeling.

Often times, I get overwhelmed by the stress of trying to write something "perfectly" the first time. Like my mind will be super demanding with how the writing should sound, but won't give me a clear idea of how to make something that sounds nice.

One thing that helps me is to try to remove the stress and pressure from the situation as much as possible, as those feelings often make me want to escape my current situation and thus make it difficult to concentrate.

In order to make things less stressful, I often like an outlet to organize my thoughts and feelings. Two things that help me are outlines and journaling.

I typically use journaling first, during moments of intense stress or disappointment. I'll just give myself an empty paper and allow myself to write whatever I'm feeling, and honestly whatever I want to write about. This usually helps to slow down my thought process and put things in perspective.

Making outlines also helps me reduce the stress of writing and brings me to the present moment. What helps me is to just freely write whatever ideas I have for the work, sometimes in no particular order. This reduces the pressure of my writing to sound good at first, as I know I'll later take time to put those ideas into proper sentences, and even after that go through multiple revisions before having what I want.

The mind can be a harsh critic, like you said. I think the most important thing I remind myself is not to judge my writing too harshly. I remind myself that it will almost definitely not come out perfect the first time, and that's okay. Sometimes it'll even seem bad at first. However, I also remind myself of the fact that sometimes I judge myself too harshly. With this in mind, after my first draft, I will intentionally force myself to take a break from writing. I'll step back and work on a different task for a few hours, or even revisit the writing the following day. With this new perspective, I find that I often judge myself far less, and also generate more fresh ideas in the process.

I wish you all the best of luck moving forward!