There’s no chance of me overthinking things.

Welcome back to another blog hop, with #OpenBook. Here’s this week’s prompt.

Don’t forget to click the purple button to see what everyone else has to say on this week’s subject. It’s at the end of my post.

How do you keep from overthinking your story?

It’s very simple, it’s not my story.

As I’ve mentioned several times, I have no conscious input into what I write. I see a film in my head and simply put down what happens. Whether I’m typing or dictating, it’s all the same.

This has its advantages, I don’t have to spend hours desperately having to work out what happens next and there is no agonising over plot holes or character development. And, of course, there’s no overthinking on my part. It’s all done for me. The story on the page is pure, exactly as I saw it.

It sounds like a very simple way to produce fiction, just a case of copying down what you see.  And I suppose it is, as long as things are working properly. But, as the content and delivery are beyond my control, there are disadvantages.

The thing that people don’t consider, the flip side to not having to put any effort in (except the typing), is that I never know what will happen in the story next. When we reach the twist, or the part where everything is explained, it’s as much of a shock to me as it hopefully is to the reader. After all, we’re both experiencing it at the same point in our journey through the pages.

It’s the same with the ending, it just happens, I never know when it will be.

In every story that I start, I don’t even know if it will ever reach a conclusion or whether whoever is sending me this stuff will get bored and suddenly stop, leaving me with another half-finished project.

That’s where overthinking can creep in, as I wait to find out what will happen next.

In quite a few cases, I might initially see just enough to complete a short story and assume that’s all there is. Then, at some time in the future, the narrator will reappear and turn it into a novel.

The one thing I can’t do is try to complete a story on my own, the difference in quality is immediately apparent. I have to be patient and wait for the real thing.

Until next time.

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