You shouldn't overthink things as a writer.

When it comes to writing, it's not exactly a secret that it's not easy to come up with quality stuff. Writing stuff that makes sense and has value is something that takes a lot of effort and is something that should never be taken for granted.

After all, in order to be able to write quality scripts, you have to work hard and use your precious brain well. You can't slack with your projects and phone things in, no matter how good or capable you might be as a screenwriter.

At the same time, just because writing quality stuff is hard work and is difficult, it shouldn't be something that is too difficult for you. You shouldn't find yourself in situations where you worry about the process too much or you keep overthinking yourself to death.

For example, when it comes to my book writing project (adaptation from a movie script), I was in a lot of trouble because I kept overthinking things all the time. I couldn't see things clearly and I kept freaking out about what I was supposed to do.

The biggest reason for my problems was basically that I had no previous experience in writing a book. I didn't know enough about writing a children's book, even though I knew a lot about writing for television and movies. 

In practice, overthinking stuff lead to me constantly overanalysing and micromanaging things. I worried about things like paragraphs, transitions and character dialogue so much, that at some point I couldn't see the forest for the trees anymore.  

Me worrying and overthinking become so serious that I started to feel that I wouldn't get the project finished. I thought that there was no way that I would get the book completed and that my story wasn't suitable for the adaptation.

Thankfully, at some point I managed to take a break from writing and went back to learning more about the craft. I went back and read books like Enid Blyton's 'Five Series' in hopes that I would get some insights on how to write my book.

Fortunately, it didn't take long before I noticed that reading these children's books helped me immensely. I noticed that I had been panicking in most cases for no reason at all and that I had actually been doing the right things all along.

After all, even though I had worried about everything, I noticed that I could get away with a lot of things. Things like my scene transitions weren't actually that bad and my dialogue for the characters was pretty solid too.

In that sense, when you think about overthinking, it's clear that the process has a lot to do with  experience (or the lack of it). It's about feeling insecure of yourself and not having confidence in how things are supposed to be done.

After all, if you don't know enough about the basics of writing novels, it's no surprise that you're going to feel uncomfortable about the craft. You're going to start panicking and overthinking everything, no matter how talented you might be.

In the end, I can only be grateful that in my case I managed to take a break from writing and went back to learn more about the craft. I can only be grateful that I noticed that I was micromanaging everything and that I was starting to feel awful about myself.

After all, even though I had a lot of experience as a writer, the fact that I hadn't written books or even read that many of them made my project so vulnerable. My lack of experience as novel writer wasn't a good thing at all.

In that sense, if you ever decide to write a book, you really should study the basics first as well as possible. You should study the basics and make sure that you feel comfortable about your genre before you start your writing.

After all, the more you know about the craft, the easier it becomes to get the project done. The more you know about how the basics and the fundamentals work, the easier it becomes to complete a project that has value and that makes sense.

I watched some random television shows again.

When it comes to my television watching habits, I haven't lately been watching that many tv shows. Even though I have tried to follow my favourite reality shows (The Amazing Race & Survivor), I haven't been watching anything else on a regular basis.

That of course doesn't mean that I haven't had my tv open when I have had free time during the evenings. After all, I tend to channel surf almost every day, in case there happens to be something interesting on that could be worth my time.

In any case, below are three different shows that I managed to watch while I was flipping channels last week. I watched these shows and gave them a chance, even though I more or less knew that I would not enjoy all of them.

So the first show that I watched was an episode of the 'New MacGyver' series. I managed to watch most of episode S2x20, 'Skyscraper - Power', that aired Wednesday night when I  felt tired and was just about go to sleep.

The problem with this particular episode was that it had none of the qualities of the original 'MacGyver' series from the 80s. There wasn't really anything that would make you care about the characters or what happens to them.

After all, the original series was not just a great action show that kept you entertained. It was also a genuinely intelligent series that dealt with all kinds of social and environmental issues that are important and that we should be aware of.

When it comes to this new series, it just doesn't have any of those qualities at all. The episode in which Mac and Jack are trying to save a kid from a skyscraper after the kid gets kidnapped, was pretty bad and bland.

Especially when it came to the episode's pop culture references (Die Hard), I have no idea what the writers were thinking. It was really frustrating to keep hearing dialogue from the Bruce Willis film over and over again.

The second show that I managed to watch is AMC's long running zombie series 'The Walking Dead'. I saw its episode S8E06, 'The King Widow and Rick', when I was watching Fox channel at 2.30 a.m. in the morning last Sunday.

When it comes to this zombie series, I haven't exactly been a regular viewer, even though I have nothing against the show either. I have tried to give the series a chance if I haven't had anything else to do during the weekends.

After all, there's something genuinely fascinating about human beings trying to survive in a post apocalyptic world. The circumstances - in which the society has fallen apart and there's very little hope left - is pretty fascinating in my opinion.

At the same time, when it comes to this particular episode, S8E06 was, as sad as it is, super repetitive and had nothing going for it. It was clear that the writers had no story and that they were just trying to create as much filler as possible.

Especially when it came to the wounded character (Ezekiel), who kept falling down again and again and who told others that he should be left behind again and again, that was not entertainment. Clearly this was an episode that was difficult to finish.

My last example is the sitcom 'Superior Donuts' that aired on CBS from 2017 to 2018 for two seasons. I managed to watch the pilot episode for the comedy series last Saturday, when I kept flipping channels and tried to find something that would entertain me.

When it comes to the series about a donut shop and its employees, I was somewhat positively surprised by it. The series has a simple, down to earth premise, which makes it possible for its characters and storylines to be relatable and likable.

The writing on the show, surprisingly enough, was also solid for a multi-cam (laugh track) comedy series. The pacing in the pilot episode was pretty good and the jokes came naturally of the situations - which I didn't really expect to happen.

Still, the best thing about the show had to do with its acting. Especially when it comes to the comedy veteran Judd Hirsch, it was simply incredible to watch a guy in his eighties (!) have as much as energy as he has here.

In that sense, if you happen to be on a channel that plays this show, you should watch it. You should watch it, because even though 'Superior Donuts' is not a great show, it's still a series that manages to get solid laughs from its premise and its likable characters.

The importance of learning from your mistakes.

When it comes to one being a writer, it's not exactly a secret that writing is a process that isn't easy to master. It's not a craft that can be mastered easily, even though it's possible to become better at it if you're willing to practice hard enough.

After all, no matter how talented you are, you will always make a lot of mistakes as a writer. No matter how good or experienced you might be, it's pretty much guaranteed that you will always make mistakes in the process.

So the reason that I'm writing about this is that I have been making a lot of these 'mistakes' in my latest writing project. Ever since I started adapting my animated screenplay into a novel, I have been struggling with all kinds of things.

Very likely the biggest problem that I have had with the book adaptation has to do with the story's pacing. It has been a really big challenge to make the story work, so that the novel could actually read like a book instead of it reading like a film script.

By that I mean that when it comes to writing books, the process is certainly different compared to writing television shows or movies. Especially when it comes to exposition in scenes and transitions, there are a lot of differences between these two art forms.

After all, writing books, unlike writing movies or television scripts, is not all about being as simplistic as possible. Writing books - or simply even reading them - requires so much more attention to detail compared to television shows or movies.

Not surprisingly, when it comes to my book, I have learned the hard way that writing dialogue or simply describing events like they are in the film script isn't enough. It takes more to make the scenes and the characters in the story to feel real and believable.

Naturally, this part of the task hasn't been as easy as I had thought at first. It has been super frustrating when I haven't been able to get the pacing and the transitions right, even though I have tried to pay attention to these aspects of the process a lot.

In reality, no matter how much I have tried, some of the problems in the adaptation have been painfully difficult to fix. It hasn't been easy to write inner dialogue, manage timelines and create composite characters so that the story could have a better flow.

Still, just because I have been struggling and making these mistakes, that doesn't meant that this project has been a total letdown for me. Just because it has felt horrible to not get things right, that's not all there is to this process.

After all, whenever I have faced things that haven't gone my way, I have tried to remind myself that just because I keep making mistakes, I can still learn from them. As long as I pay attention to where I went wrong, I can fix these mistakes later.

In that sense, even though I've had my bad days during this project, this has still been a great learning experience for me. This has been a great project, even though there are days when nothing seems to work and you really have to push yourself.

After all, as long as I keep learning and keep fixing these mistakes, eventually I'll get the project done. I'll get the project done and I'll get a chance to work on something new that would challenge me and that could make me a better writer.