: Re: How does one deal with world builder's syndrome? I am a planner in the extreme. I tend to drift toward fantasy oriented novels when writing; it's just what comes out. This means that I do

@Jamie945

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my average preparation results in something on the order of 150,000+ words (the most I've ever written is 300,000). In other words, I consistently find myself writing a novel before I even write my novel.

Dude, that is so freaking awesome.

Haven't you pretty much answered your own question? You think of the 150,000 words as "notes," thus freeing yourself lavish care and attention and all of your imaginative energy on them. Since, being merely notes, they have a sort second-rate status -- not real writing -- there's no anxiety attached to them or to the process of writing them and you can go wild.

In the end, perhaps, the notes become the novel.

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