Writing, in almost all its forms, is creative work. One of the most common pitfalls of creative work is overwhelm. It arises for many different reasons. Maybe we are overly attached to an idea and we hold on to making it perfect even as we grow to understand that there is a ton of complexity under the surface. Maybe we are simply spending most of our time doubting ourselves. Maybe we got some difficult feedback. Or maybe we are just exhausted for external reasons.
Regardless of what caused the overwhelm, the tried-and-true way of dealing with it is to just do something. Overwhelm is a state of paralysis, one which can build on itself rapidly. Once it crosses a certain threshold, overwhelm can dull our spontaneity, flexibility, and the ability to step back from the situation. If we think of performing an action, no matter how small, as a form of intentional mental movement, that movement counters the tendency to freeze up. Typically, states of overwhelm feel insurmountable, but they aren’t really insurmountable. It only takes a little bit of intentional action to get the mind moving again.
Our fact sheet on getting unstuck has some in-the-moment strategies for nudging yourself into action. Today we will focus on a related attitude: the Draft 0 mindset. Draft 0, as the name suggests, comes before Draft 1. Draft 0 is for you and you only. It can be written in an unpolished a way as fits your brain. The goal of working with a Draft 0 is to get words on the page–any words! In deciding to not share this draft with anyone, you are effectively stopping the constant background chatter of the self-critical editor brain. This is excellent. You may feel that energy has been unlocked.
Draft 0 allows you to dump all the formal, polished rules of writing and prose construction. Go ahead: write those run-on sentences, those redundant sentences, those sentence fragments! Go ahead and just dump your thoughts onto the page in search of something actionable. Go ahead. The Draft 0 mindset is similar to doodling, which has itself been shown to be quite beneficial in getting us to stay on tasks that may be difficult. So doodle with your words!
In cases of really bad overwhelm, sometimes even Draft 0 is inaccessible. In that case, we suggest taking yet another step back, to Draft -1! Write in point-form, or with shapes, or with swoops and loops. Change your context from a keyboard to a piece of blank paper. Take the doodling from a metaphor to literal doodling! Pace and wiggle if your situation allows it. This may help. And then, when you are ready, resume with Draft 0.
You may be pleasantly surprised with the results. And even if you aren’t, you will find that you probably broke through the paralysis of overwhelm, which is a great gift to your mind and body. You will have given yourself a taste of what it feels like to work well under bad conditions. This is essential for anyone’s writing journey.