Stop Overthinking—Just Write

Every writer knows the feeling: you finally sit down to write your memoir…and then the voice in your head starts up.

“That sentence sounds terrible.”
 “You used the word ‘remember’ three times—fix it.”
 “No one’s going to want to read this.”

Before you’ve finished the first paragraph, you’re deleting, rearranging, and doubting every word.

Here’s the problem: you can’t write and edit at the same time.

Why Early Editing Kills Your Memoir

When you edit while you write, you slam the brakes on your creative flow.

Your brain is trying to do two different jobs:

• Writing (creative, exploratory, messy)
  
• Editing (analytical, critical, tidy)
  

It’s like asking one foot to press the gas while the other slams the brakes. You won’t get far.

The Freedom of Freewriting

The secret? Separate the writing from the editing.

When you’re drafting your memoir, you need to let the words tumble out—unpolished, imperfect, and real. You can come back later with your editor’s hat on.

For now? You’re just the storyteller.

Try This…

Set a timer for 10 minutes. Pick a memory—or even just an image or feeling—and start writing.

Rules:

• Don’t stop.
  
• Don’t delete.
  
• Don’t censor.
  

When the timer goes off, put your pen down.

Congratulations—you just wrote without your inner critic breathing down your neck.

You Can Fix It Later

Here’s the truth: you will edit this later. You’ll shape it, trim it, polish it.

But for now, the goal is momentum. Because once you have pages of raw material, you can turn them into something beautiful.

Want more small, powerful steps like this to get your memoir going?

 👉 Download The Memoir Writing Quick-Start Guide—it’s free and will show you how to move from overthinking to actually writing.