My inner critic sits on my desk. Where does yours live?
This week’s “lesson” in Caroline Donahue’s free course, “Write Free,” deals with the inner critic. We all have one. It’s that voice inside your head that says you’re not good enough, or your work sucks, or there are better things to spend your time on as you’re clearly not smart enough to continue your present path.
Recognizing our inner critic is the first stage in dealing with him, and it’s up to you to discover your inner critic’s motives for clawing your eyes out. Let me suggest writing a description of your inner critic? I sat down with a real notebook and a pen to write what he looked and sounded like. The more I described him, the more I learned about him. We had a nice long talk on that piece of paper. And Surprise! My critic wasn’t a bad guy and gave me good some advice. I just had to listen.
After our talk, my inner critic told me she loved Thursdays. Why? It’s the day when I put my creative voice aside to edit. She loves to edit! She challenges each of my creative’s word choices; she corrects my grammar, and she’s honest about the quality of my work. Since giving her a free rein one day a week, she keeps her voice to a soft whisper and sometimes even sleeps when my creative is working.
Have you tried to silence your my inner critic? Try giving your critique a voice at a particular time. Let me know how it works for you.
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