Writtenwyrdd : If you can't ignore your Inner Critic, make fun of her!

October 23, 2009

If you can't ignore your Inner Critic, make fun of her!

An hilarious post on your inner editor at This Itch Of Writing blog by author Emma Darwin. The author discusses how your inner critic's most obvious ploys (you suck! etc.) can be easily seen and thus ignored...but the Inner Critic plays dress up and stalks you with some pretty clever disguises... Some of my favorites:

Inner Editor: “You don't know how this new bit should go, better to fiddle with Chapter One till you do.”
Inner Writing Tutor: “There's no point in moving on till you've got the first bit right.”
Inner Mentor: “No, you absolutely must finish this and revise it to the last inch: it's your Inner Critic who's insisting that the new idea is more promising.”
Inner Nosey Neighbour: “I don't know how you can write with the bathroom/kitchen/front lawn looking like that.”
Inner Trainer: “Writer's bum, writer's bum, writer's bum.”
Inner Spouse: “I'm paying most of the bills, the least you can do is iron my shirts.”
Inner Sex God/dess: “Saying 'no' because you're finishing a chapter is the thin end of the wedge.”
Inner Counsellor: “Your husband/best friend/barmaid will be hurt if you don't go down to the pub.”
Inner Agent: “It's awfully like the last one of yours/McEwan's/Keyes's”
Inner Reviewer: “Who cares about vulgar commercial fiction?”
Inner Supermarket: “Who reads poncey literary fiction?”
Inner Publisher: “Crossover fiction doesn't sell.”
Inner Literary Critic: “You can't be original: it's all been done before. And better.”