30 Day Journal Affirmation Challenge (Day 13) Response
“Turn off your inner critic.” Words that a writer needs to hear, but will
have trouble doing. A writer’s inner
critic is a horrible voice that tells them their words have no value and are absurdity,
gibberish, or nonsense. It is this voice
that causes fear in each writer, even those seasoned writers with years of
experience and large quantities of work.
The inner critic never goes away. It persistently yells…
“You are not a good writer.”
“You do not want to write.”
“No one wants to read what you have to say.”
“This has already been written.”
“This sounds just like your other work.”
“You cannot do this.”
The writer must be brave enough to tell their inner critic, “My
job is to write the work, not to judge the work.” This means, the writer must listen to their
heart, follow their muse, pour their emotions, sentiments, and ideas onto the
page with all of their strength and not listen to what their inner critic has to
say about it. This is hard, harder than
can be imagined because the written words of the writer (that is to say, the
words the writer put on the page) are the writer’s soul draped in their blood, sweat,
and fears. It is the essence of the
writer, given to share with the world. As
Virginia Woolf once said, “Every secret of a writer’s soul, every experience of
his life, every quality of his mind, is written large in his works.”
An idea is sparked, but they inner critic says that this has
been written before or no one cares about this, but that is not true. For if one person needs your work to be told,
then you have done your job as a writer.
If a work has been laid upon your heart, your job is to write it, not to
figure how you it will touch or how far it will go. You must be bold enough to write this idea
and not judge its mission. The mission
of the work will be done, but only if you do your mission, which is to write.
The inner critic is there when the writer first begins to
write, telling them that they are not good enough to write this work or that
the work has been told over and over again, thus no one wants to hear their
work. But that is a lie. The work you tell may be the work that helps
someone who has not been helped by any other person’s work. So, write the work, do not judge it.
Consistency and commitment are challenged by the inner
critic. It continues to tell them they
are not good enough, but it adds a whining opinion that hopes to get them to
not write. Judging your work will cause
you to not want to write because you feel that it is inadequate or that no one
will care about your story. But, the test
is to overcome this judgement and write the work.
Writers must not judge their work, once they have finished a
draft. They must revise it and edit
it. It is in the revision and editing
where they must silent the inner critic the most, so that they do not delete or
rewrite the very words that will save another person’s soul, spirit, or
life. They must be brave enough to evaluate
their work for correctness and review without censoring their words. Do not judge the work.
A writers last hurdle is to share what they have
written. Perhaps, this is the scariest
step. But, the writer must remember, “There
is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.” (Maya
Angelou). Thus, sharing your work is
vital. If the work is in you, you must
share it. If you do not share it, your
soul will languish in torment until you share it in some way. And the suffering from not telling your story
is far worse that what your inner critic has to say about your work.
As Morgan Harper Nichols says, “Tell the story of the
mountain you climbed. Your words could become a page in someone else’s survival
guide.”
So, do not listen to your inner critic, for it is a liar, and it would have you abort your mission.