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Wrestling With the Inner Critic
Are you second-guessing your work even on the first draft?
Hardcore, get it done or die writers will lie between their writerly teeth about the voice of doubt we wrestle with as writers. The inner critic can creep in on any of us when we least expect it.
It happens to us all. It doesn’t make us less competent. We are writers, not androids.
Even when many writers were at the top of their writing careers, they will tell you they have heard that tortuous voice from time to time — the voice of criticism and self-doubt.
Yes, I will be honest with you, even as a writer who has had a daily writing habit for 17 years, I still hear that inner critic’s voice. Is she as loud as she used to be? No.
Nonetheless, she never goes away completely.
I have tried to kill my inner critic many times over the years. I’ve dropped her off in the desert with no water or food. She came back.
I threw her over a cliff. Like a soap opera villain, she came back as her evil twin.
I’m not here promoting violence. Please don’t choose violence. Instead, I’m saying self-doubt exists. We can’t get rid of it all at once.
Whenever we try something new, venture into a new creative project, or change directions in our work —…
