The fabled "Inner Critic"

Niapri said:

Does anybody have some suggestions on quieting this little guy? He's screaming in my ear non-stop, and I'm getting next to nothing actually written. My inner critic is currently my arch-enemy...-_-;

Click to expand...

During the first draft you must speak to him seriously.Tell him you undrestand his concerns, but it's not his turn yet. The Muse has to have a free hand, and needs to work alone. Promise Mr Critic that his turn will come.
His turn is in the second and all other drafts. Then you must listen to him, and do what he says.

Alcohol. But seriously, every idea can be reduced to stupidity. As a writer you have to look at an idea's potential, not the 30 second summery thats going through your head at the time. A brief description of a story meant to be 100,000 words is never going to compare to the whole thing.

Unfortunately, my inner critic has banded together with my muse, and all my principal characters. When things aren't going right in the story, they present a unified front, and we go into negotiations.

The inner critic is ironically the most forgiving of the group. If I agree to pass over the existing manuscript at least once a week and tweak what's wrong, he's happy.

The Muse is the brat of the pack. She refuses to "put out" unless everything is going well on every other level. The slightest sign of inner turmoil will make her go cold, and she won't come out of her funk until I make everybody and everything in my universe happy again.

The characters are always fighting for more creative freedom. In the beginning we got along great, but now that there's a serious novel underway, with certain plot obligations, they're all complaining about the restrictions.

If at all possible,you should slip a little red ball and a gag over his mouth (a la Bruce Willis in Pulp Fiction) and run as fast as your little cuticles will take you until you type THE END.

With that said, one should never completely ignore Captain Nemo (so named since he's a SUB commander and this little voice I'm talking about is the sub-conscious). When functioning properly, Nemo can save your butt. He notices plot holes and errors in logic it didn't even occur to you to look for. The difficulty comes when telling the difference between Nemo and stress from those two missed mortgage payments.

For me, most of the time I just can't get any forward motion for some reason. Like I've lost interest in the story or something. Then after a day or so away from it, I realize Nemo is screaming. I stick my head in a bucket (he's best heard underwater for some reason) and suddenly realize that Character Bob, who has taken a gig as a pianobar player, had his fingers cut off by Nose Noserson 3 chapters ago.

Oops. :Smack:

Natalie Goldberg's "Writing down the Bones" has been useful for me with this. She tells us to just keep our hands moving. If you cna't think of what to write, write down "I can't think of what to write"! If your critic is getting in your way then write down his comments (I put them in square brackets so I know what they are) then carry on with the writing. Later you can consider his opinion and give it the weight it deserves. The important thing is to just keep writing, and don't let the criticism stop you. It's hard but the more you work through it, the easier it becomes. It will flatten your writing for a while but if you keep at it, you'll find the work starts to flow properly again.

How about letting the little guy run things for a while, and see what happens?

Here's how it will probably go: You'll hit a snag that stops your work, and your critic will tell you that revising will help you get back into the flow. You'll begin revising, and the prose will get smoother, but your critic won't be satisfied. He'll point out the inconsistancies and the poor pacing, the flat characters, plot problems, and lack of conflict. He'll tell you that your novel has so many problems, it's not worth finishing until you get them fixed in your head. He'll say you should put the MS away and work on something else for a while. You'll never go back to it.

Try it his way a few times. You'll either quit writing altogether, or get good enough to satisfy him enough to get something finished.

(Warning, this may take several years and/or a few hundred-thousand words.)

MTF

Duct tape works wonders.

On a slightly more serious note, I find my critic (I call him Smokey) is constantly in the way of my muse (I call her Marie). Sometimes I'll get lucky and Marie will get annoyed enough to 'quiet' (read: smack) Smokey, but most of the time he just rampages, scattering any and all thoughts while screaming about every problem he finds in my writing. Needless to say, it's extremely distracting.

When this happens, I do one of three things to shut Smokey up: eat lunch, do something else until he falls asleep from sheer boredom, or threaten to feed him to my cat. If all else fails, I just go outside and laugh maniacally as he flees in panic from the sunlight.

~DragonHeart~

Agree with the critic for a minute, then blow him away with logic.

"You suck"
"Okay, fine. I suck. But if I don't keep writing and learn how it's done, I'll never get better."

Inner critic can't argue with that.

Sleep with it, then walk out in the morning. Leave this note -

I gave you everything you want. Things won't work out. I have to follow other parts of me. I'm sorry. Maybe one day....who knows eh? Oh, and if I wasn't fantastic, well, I don't want to hear it.'

This may sound off-topic, but I'll get there eventually.

I'm a computer programmer. One of the things I was taught in college was the "Smart Friend" tactic. In any programming project, there are always things you don't know how to do. So to keep yourself from becoming overwhelmed by all the unknowns, you tell yourself that you have a "smart friend" who knows how to do that. Then you work on the parts of the project that you DO know how to do. By the time you get to the parts you don't know how to do, you begin to see solutions to them. Sounds screwy, but it works.

I've taken this approach to my writing. There are times I don't know where to go with my stories. I just tell myself (inner critic) that my smart friend will figure it out for me, and I work on the parts I do know. When I think I've written something execrable, I just tell myself my smart friend will clean it up later.

And you know what? He does.

Niapri said:

Does anybody have some suggestions on quieting this little guy? He's screaming in my ear non-stop, and I'm getting next to nothing actually written. My inner critic is currently my arch-enemy...-_-;

Click to expand...

As I have told many a writer, flush him down the toilet and let him find his way home through the sewers, or just gag him and lock him in the closet because he's a nuisance when you want to create.

Once he learns his lesson, he can be let out to do his job...

It is hard to kick the editor off the shoulder, but it has to be done.

I never have been comfortable with the idea of turning off the inner critic. He shouldn't be in charge, but he should be turned on and functioning at all times. Without the inner critic, we probably couldn't even write anything that makes sense.

It's only when he tries to make you stop writing that he should be ignored. Leave the poor guy alone and let him do his job. Just remember who's in charge.

Bones

Old Hack said:

Natalie Goldberg's "Writing down the Bones" has been useful for me with this. She tells us to just keep our hands moving. If you cna't think of what to write, write down "I can't think of what to write"! If your critic is getting in your way then write down his comments (I put them in square brackets so I know what they are) then carry on with the writing. Later you can consider his opinion and give it the weight it deserves. The important thing is to just keep writing, and don't let the criticism stop you. It's hard but the more you work through it, the easier it becomes. It will flatten your writing for a while but if you keep at it, you'll find the work starts to flow properly again.

Click to expand...

I never have understood why "Writing Down the Bones" was such a hugely popular book. It's writing advice from someone who had never really done much writing at the time she wrote a book telling people how to write. It always struck me the same as asking a homeless person how to become a millionaire.

On top of that, it's way too New Age and wonky for my taste. Wasn't it originally published by Bantam's New Age line?

writing down the bones

Jamesaritchie said:

I never have understood why "Writing Down the Bones" was such a hugely popular book. It's writing advice from someone who had never really done much writing at the time she wrote a book telling people how to write. It always struck me the same as asking a homeless person how to become a millionaire.

On top of that, it's way too New Age and wonky for my taste. Wasn't it originally published by Bantam's New Age line?

Click to expand...

I agree with you. IMO at book was a lot of hype nestling in a lot of New Age sound bites. It didn't do a thing for me. In contrast to Dorothea Brande's Becoming a Writer; she was the first (1934!) to talk about accessing the creative genius inside us - but wihout all the touchy-feely stuff.

That's funny. I'm always being accused of not being sensitive enough and now you think a book I like is touchy-feely!

I do like the Goldberg book because despite her lack of writing success (apart from WDTB) she gets it right. All we can do is keep writing. No matter what comes our way, we have to keep writing. Get those words down, one way or another. OK, she takes far too long to say it, and says it in far too many ways: but I found that at the end of it something (goodness knows what) had crystallised for me and now I do just keep my hand moving. If I sit down to write for two hours and I write nothing but cr*p for the first hour fifty I keep writing until the two hours is up. That last ten minutes might be the ten minutes I write something spellbinding. It's worth a shot. If we don't "keep our hands moving" (stop sniggering and take me seriously!) then we don't write anything. Just keeping going despite our inner critic, the noise outside, the housework piling up around our ears... it's what we have to do.

It took me over ten years to write my first novel, as I was waiting for the muse to arrive. My second I started in December and I have 90,000 words down now. Just because I keep on writing despite everything. Natalie Goldberg might have been new age touchy feelie but she was on to something.

Dorothea Brande: now she was wonderful. But very subtle in her presentation. She didn't hammer things home like Goldberg did. Another one of my favourites is "Taking Reality by Surprise" edited by Susan Sellers, now out of print but I'm sure it's at Abebooks. And of course, the Creative Writing Coursebook by Julia Bell and Paul Magrs. We all need copies of that.

Niapri said:

Does anybody have some suggestions on quieting this little guy? He's screaming in my ear non-stop, and I'm getting next to nothing actually written. My inner critic is currently my arch-enemy...-_-;

Click to expand...

Get in your car and get on the interstate. Now let the little guy out. Let him scream out everything he wants. Rant and rave, whatever. That will satisfy him...for a while.

Jamesaritchie said:

I never have understood why "Writing Down the Bones" was such a hugely popular book. It's writing advice from someone who had never really done much writing at the time she wrote a book telling people how to write. It always struck me the same as asking a homeless person how to become a millionaire.

On top of that, it's way too New Age and wonky for my taste. Wasn't it originally published by Bantam's New Age line?

Click to expand...

My creative writing teacher made me read "Writing Down the Bones" in our first class together. I don't remember anything about that book...except all the times I rolled my eyes at the New Age wonky stuff.

My inner critic will be quiet for days or weeks at a time while I'm writing first and second drafts and then BAM! Out of nowhere, he'll blindside me and bring me to a halt for a few days at a time. I hate it when that happens, but it's something we work through. My muse (Jeff) doesn't even smack him around. He's just like, "OK, you're turn to have the floor..." *sigh*

Old Hack said:

That's funny. I'm always being accused of not being sensitive enough and now you think a book I like is touchy-feely!

.

Click to expand...

G'day old hack, but I don't think I ever accused you of anything (OK, maybe ina senior moment!)

Actually, Dorthea Brande's book was groundbreaking for me. Al my life I wanted to write novels but it was just something I thought far, far beyond my capabilities. When I came across her book it was as if lightning had struck - really, that dramatic. As soon as I read it I began writing and haven't stopped since - and that was 10 years ago!

By the time I read "Bones" I felt she had nothing new to offer. It was al rehashed, regurguitated stuff, things I knew already, and not even said particularly well. That in fact is al I remember of that book - jusr being very, very underwhelmed, after having had it highly recommended. But it does seem to haev got some people writing, so who am I to complain. As long as it gets people writing who need to write, that's OK by me!

Goldberg

Old Hack said:

That's funny. I'm always being accused of not being sensitive enough and now you think a book I like is touchy-feely!

I do like the Goldberg book because despite her lack of writing success (apart from WDTB) she gets it right. All we can do is keep writing. No matter what comes our way, we have to keep writing. Get those words down, one way or another. OK, she takes far too long to say it, and says it in far too many ways: but I found that at the end of it something (goodness knows what) had crystallised for me and now I do just keep my hand moving. If I sit down to write for two hours and I write nothing but cr*p for the first hour fifty I keep writing until the two hours is up. That last ten minutes might be the ten minutes I write something spellbinding. It's worth a shot. If we don't "keep our hands moving" (stop sniggering and take me seriously!) then we don't write anything. Just keeping going despite our inner critic, the noise outside, the housework piling up around our ears... it's what we have to do.

It took me over ten years to write my first novel, as I was waiting for the muse to arrive. My second I started in December and I have 90,000 words down now. Just because I keep on writing despite everything. Natalie Goldberg might have been new age touchy feelie but she was on to something.

Dorothea Brande: now she was wonderful. But very subtle in her presentation. She didn't hammer things home like Goldberg did. Another one of my favourites is "Taking Reality by Surprise" edited by Susan Sellers, now out of print but I'm sure it's at Abebooks. And of course, the Creative Writing Coursebook by Julia Bell and Paul Magrs. We all need copies of that.

Click to expand...

Hey, if it works for you, it works for you. For me, that book is a decently written wallbanger, and all the useful info in it could have been summed up in three sentences, and not one of the sentences would have said anything new. I thought the two sequels were even worse.

But the only thing that matters at all is what works for us as individuals, and when you find something that works the smart thing is to use it, no matter what anyone else thinks of it. If we were all the same, there would be only one how-to book, and one novel written from using it. What I think is awful may work miracles for you, and t'other way around.

My favorite writing books are:

Ray Bradbury's "Zen in the Art of Writing."
Stephen King's "On Writing."
Erskine Caldwell's "Call it Experience."
Patrick McManus' "The Deer on a Bicycle."
Eudora Welty's "One Writer's Beginnings." (Not exactly a how-to book, but close enough.)
William G. Tapply's "The Elements of Mystery Fiction."

I could add three or four more to the list, but these are the main books.

I was gyped! My writing sense came with the inner critique software left uninstalled with no disk in sight. I think the handles broke it and put in the garbage hoping I wouldn't miss it.

My problem isn't the noisy critic but the silent one, which makes writing fairly easy, but the editing process an absolute nightmare. I can critique other people's work and the critic is very noisy then, but when it comes to analyzing my own it seems to have gone on vacation or into hibernation. So my question is not how to silence it, but how to awaken it when you want to edit your own work. I know my writing needs work, but unless someone points it out to me, I just can't seem to find the problem areas.

Am I just really strange? Or are there others suffering from a MIA critic as well?

Sara

icerose said:

I was gyped! My writing sense came with the inner critique software left uninstalled with no disk in sight. I think the handles broke it and put in the garbage hoping I wouldn't miss it.

My problem isn't the noisy critic but the silent one, which makes writing fairly easy, but the editing process an absolute nightmare. I can critique other people's work and the critic is very noisy then, but when it comes to analyzing my own it seems to have gone on vacation or into hibernation. So my question is not how to silence it, but how to awaken it when you want to edit your own work. I know my writing needs work, but unless someone points it out to me, I just can't seem to find the problem areas.

Am I just really strange? Or are there others suffering from a MIA critic as well?

Sara

Click to expand...

I suffer from the same dilemma. That's why I wrote several MS Word utilities that help point out problems. They are:

Passive Word Highlighter
Adverb Highlighter
Preposition Highlighter
Word Frequency Counter
Phrase Frequency Counter

You can find these to download (if you want) on the Tech Help board, here: http://absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=11653

Roger J Carlson said:

I suffer from the same dilemma. That's why I wrote several MS Word utilities that help point out problems. They are:

Passive Word Highlighter
Adverb Highlighter
Preposition Highlighter
Word Frequency Counter
Phrase Frequency Counter

You can find these to download (if you want) on the Tech Help board, here: http://absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=11653

Click to expand...

I don't use MS Word though. I absolutely hate all microsoft writing programs. I use Corel Word Perfect. I will look and see if they have any downloads to those kinds of things, but I am not sure if they do or not.

Thanks

I am glad to know I am not the only one.

Sara

icerose said:

I don't use MS Word though. I absolutely hate all microsoft writing programs. I use Corel Word Perfect. I will look and see if they have any downloads to those kinds of things, but I am not sure if they do or not.

Thanks

I am glad to know I am not the only one.

Sara

Click to expand...

No, the programs I mentioned only work with MS Word. Sorry.