Salutations ... strangers. Let's all bond over this issue like brethren (uh, not even sure if you've experienced the same problem- but alas! I'm an author, you're [possibly] an author, we are one!) It's 2:25 here, so it shall remain 2:25 in your heart. No, I don't need coffee. Now... This problem I mentioned. It's an annoying parasite, tapeworm, clonorchiasis, HOODLUM! (I heard that before, dunno what it is, excuse me). See! My problem! This took me nine minutes to write, I overthink! I reread everything, multiple times, before writing another sentence. I can't write more than one paragraph without reading the whole chapter over again. What is this? The day I find out I might be crazy? Was I already crazy? Help me, bekants- wait, Google Translate, come back! Rephrase. Help me, acquaintance(s??)! IT'S ALREADY 2:45.
Turn off all your device and go classic : Pen and paper. Vomit away your ideas and thoughts (even the things you are overthinking), go to sleep after then come back and review it/edit it in your device or something. 2am are meant to be sleeping hours anyways so you should be sleeping.
Or you can be really masochistic and use something like Write or Die. It will eat what you have already written if you slow down below a certain speed. If you're not careful you will loose everything.
As previously mentioned, pen and paper plus not stopping. There is a writing exercise that may help. For exactly ten minutes write down (pen and paper) EVERY SINGLE thought that runs through your head. If you think “This is stupid,” then you write, ‘This is stupid.’ Write your thoughts word for word as fast as you think them. No backups allowed. You can think about erasing or changing, but you have to write those thoughts instead of acting on them. When you are done, throw it away. Consider it a way to clear your brain.
I can somewhat relate to you on this... I’ll go over each sentence as I finish writing it, then go over a paragraph many times, read it out loud to make sure it sounds nice, check the vocabulary, go through the dictionary for synonyms if I feel some words don’t suit the paragraph This made me realize I’m unsuited to writing long stories, so I stick to short stories to accommodate my perfectionist tendencies. Good luck, comrade
One- so what if what you wrote is stupid? It’s not like you HAVE to publish every little thing you wrote. Two- sleep is important. If you ruin your body then you will not be able to write even the crappiest story. Three- don’t forget, until you become super duper famous author, you are pretty much writing for yourself. Four- there are editors to cut out your bad parts, but if you got no content how could they cut out anything? Five- if you are overthinking then perhaps you are not in a mood to write? (Sorry for a bad metaphor, but it’s like going to the bathroom for number 2, if you can’t sh*t- get off the bog) (otherwise you’ll get hemorrhoids, in both your writing and colon) Six- just write. If you can’t write about purple elephants, then write about red cars. One day you’ll see that a purple elephant will be driving a red car and your story just clicks.
I feel your pain, this is pretty much my main problem (to me at least) with trying to write. My wife wanted to try doing NaNoWriMo one year and I had to explain to her that, let alone a whole novel, I'd never even finished a chapter in a month. The problem is that nothing ever sounds as good on paper as it does in my head, so I just keep re-writing it over and over trying to get close and typically just making it worse. I've got a notebook of ideas that I started back when I was in high school, which was a VERY long time ago, and I have completed exactly zero of them so far.
Stephen King once said the best ideas are the one's that stick. Maybe it would be easier for you to write a new idea every time, until it feels like it clicks or catches fire. Whenever I try to continue something I've written a long time ago, I just feel that I can't. I'm in a totally different headspace or mood or maturity. Edit: By best ideas are the one's that stick, I mean that he means that the best ideas are the ones you don't have to write down.