Technical Thinking

You know, I have read dozens of online articles on writing tips; what to do, what not to do, sentence balancing, beginnings, hooks, adjective use, and so on. Many of them contradict each other and could easily leave one feeling rather confused. They always leave me feeling uncertain of my own work, and make me think about everything from a more technical perspective. They make me question myself. I begin to wonder if anything I have done reaches these persnickety standards. While these articles are intended to help, since I started reading them, I swear my writing has become worse! Much worse! There simply isn't the flow or the sensation of a natural thought process. It seems stiffer, sounds less like my voice, doesn't read as easily, in short it just isn't as good. I think too much about what I'm doing. It's like anything that you're well practiced at; the less you think about it and let your learned subconscious do most of the work, the better the result. I much prefer reading over the things I've penned spontaneously, without giving them a speck of technical thought.

Here is an example. I ice-skated for ten years competitively, starting when I was 5 and finishing at 15 when our rink closed down. I was no master of the sport but I was quite able to do all spins and jumps etc. It was ingrained into my brain. Eight years on, I can return to the rink (our new one) and have another go. Firstly, ice-skating isn't like riding a bike, you can't just hop on and still be able to do it.
I am nowhere near what I was, but here's the thing. I can do almost all the spins and jumps as before, provided I don't think about what I'm doing. The moment I start thinking about where my arms are, am I balanced properly, should my leg be straighter, and worst of all, will I fall over, everything goes to custard and I can't do a thing. My brain knows how to ice-skate, it is printed in my subconscious. I just have to let my body remember what to do, without trying to remember it consciously, and it just happens. And it happens right. Well, a little wobbly, let's be honest, I'm taller and heavier now than I was eight years ago.

So really, things that you know well how to do can suddenly become complicated when you start thinking about how you do them. Although these 'writing tip' articles often do offer sound advice (some people sorely need it) I'm quitting them because they hinder rather than help me. Sod them! Who's to say that the people who wrote them know what they're talking about anyway? The best writing comes when you're not paying as much attention to details and technical stuff. If there are errors, they can be fixed later. Do what seems best at the time, think less, and change any fuck ups afterwards.
I have had to remove and redo whole chapters of my book because of this. Bits I did while I wasn't totally in the mood for writing but rather forced myself to sit in a silent library and do it, and thought about every sentence from this new perspective. It simply doesn't work.

Perhaps this is one of the only occasions where it is best to act first, and think later.