It is essential to separate the creator and the editor, or inner critic when you practice writing, so that the creator has plenty of room to breathe, experiment, and tell it like it really is.
If the inner critic is being too much of a problem and you can’t distinguish it from your authentic writing voice, sit down whenever you find it necessary to have some distance from it and put down on paper what the critic is saying, put a spotlight on the words—“You have nothing original to say, what made you think you could write anything anyone would want to read, your writing is crap, you’re a loser, I’m humiliated, you write a load of rubbish, your work is pathetic, and your grammar stinks …” On and on it goes!
Say to yourself, It’s OK to feel this. It’s OK to be open to this.
You can learn to cultivate compassion for yourself during this internal process by practicing Mindfulness Meditation. Sit up straight, close your eyes, bring your awareness to your inner experience. Now, redirect your attention to the physical sensations of the breath in the abdomen … expanding as the breath comes in … and falling back as the breath goes out. Use each breath to anchor yourself in the present. Continue, concentrating on the breath for several minutes. Now, expand your field of awareness to include the words of the inner critic. Turn your attention to where in your body you feel the unpleasant thoughts, so you can attend, moment by moment, to the physical reactions to your thoughts.
“Stay with the bodily sensations, accepting them, letting them be, exploring them without judgment as best you can.”—Mindfulness, Mark Williams and Danny Penman.
Every time you realise that you’re judging yourself, that realisation in itself is an indicator that you’re becoming more aware.
The thing is, the more clearly you know yourself, the more you can accept the critic in you and use it. If the voice says, “You have nothing interesting to say,” hear the words as white noise, like the churning of a washing machine. It will change to another cycle and eventually end, just like your thoughts that come and go like trains at the station. But, in the meantime, you return to your notebook and practice your writing. You put the fear and the resistance down on the page.
Do you struggle with an inner critic? Any words of wisdom you’d like to share?
Libby Sommer, Author 
My inner critic has come out! He constantly sits on the handle of the garden spade and pulls my trial and errors apart. He is right, I am still only applying my vague YouTube learning to the space. I zone him out, I can zone him out in the garden. At my desk he finds my weaknesses, … like my oldest son, the family wind up merchant. I am self educated, unable to type, but I do so with three fingers; laboriously slow. Iam a pen person I pick up my Monteblanc pen 🖊 and reach for another notebook. My notebooks are for allowing the pantzer the freedom to flow, no correcting, no edits just finding where I can go. He is quiet, he knows I am oblivious to a sound. The dog pushes her nose in my shin wanting attention or breakfast. Lilly is persistent. When the poking stops the pawing begins, if I haven’t stopped to see what is occurring she talk barks. Talk barking is a thing, no truly, I taught her to bark like she is saying ‘Hungry.’ Then I stop switch on and still ignoring the critic > ponders < Guilt has taken over now. I see to herneeds and press my too meaty cheeks into the soft leather pick up my pen and go. But once I hit the keyboard I hear him, bellowing, taunting, raiding my confidence with a couple of familiar statements.'Write, you can't even type. Call that punctuation, you will be removed from the building, if you find a publishing house to even let you in. You will be a laughing stock.' And so it goes. The trouble is he is right. But still I write ✍️ still I have an urge so great that my head may explode if I don't.
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Oh my inner critic is vicious, more like a heckler. I trick it by saying I’m going to write really badly and then it leaves me alone (for a while).
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excellent technique for dealing with the inner critic, Iseult. whatever works.
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