The Inner Child (critic)

I wrote this blog back in early October while I was at the writing conference in Eureka Springs, but things in my life got crazy about then and I didn't get around to pulling the file off my laptop and posting it til now. This is for all of the creative people out there and explains a lot about why we are the way we are. I know I for one never think my writing is good enough and this helps explain why us creative folk feel that way. :-)

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I just got out of a session with Phillip Finch and it really spoke to me and I think his talk would have significance for any writer or anyone creative for that matter. He said that as writers, we struggle the most with our inner critic. I have heard talk of the “inner critic” before, but Phillip’s talk explained it with such clarity and really hit home on almost every single point he brought up.

The inner critic is the little voice inside that constantly criticizes our writing, telling us that it is not good enough; that we are not good enough; that there are more important things to do; that we don’t feel like writing; that we aren’t good writers and can’t write and any success we do find was just luck and not something we could ever do again; and making us find reasons to procrastinate.

Phillip explained it as the “inner child”; a subconscious part of ourselves that has internalized the lessons we have learned and builds them up into these enormous fears. It works based on symbolic imagery like the mind of a child; and like how a child can take two unrelated things and connect them into a monstrous misunderstanding; our inner critic does this. It only intends to protect us from potential pain/harm/misery.

If we write a successful novel; that is wonderful for us and what we want on a conscious level; but our subconscious is afraid of it; afraid of failure; afraid of the change that comes with success. To a child change and challenges are scary and dangerous and a person could get hurt and the inner critic tries to prevent you from writing to protect you from the possible pain that might result from it.

Phillip Finch tells it so much better than I do (see my inner critic is taking over- and I have found my own inner critic to be very very strong…); but his argument really does make a lot of sense and explains why writing can be so very hard for most of us (yet very young people with less experience and less worries in life tend to have a less active inner critic because of they have not experienced everything an older person may have to build up negative associations and internalizing lessons that could subconsciously be applied to writing.

So how do those of us with a loud inner critic get past that? Phillip wrote a best-selling novel with all the perks that every author dreams about, but he didn’t write another book for 12 years because of his inner critic. How did he overcome it? It’s an everyday struggle, but according to Phillip, GOOD HABITS are stronger than even the strongest inner critic. If you get in the habit of writing for a certain time period every single day, it is an enormous step towards fighting the inner critic.

As writers most of us do not feel alive and fulfilled unless we are writing on whatever we consider to be our niche (same for any other create person; artist; singer; etc). Without our art of choice; we cannot fail, but we will never succeed. To combat our inner critic, we have to make a conscious choice, “I will write today.” And we may have to ask (rhetorically) this several times a day until we finally make ourselves sit down and write.

So to beat the inner critic, we have to make writing a habit and make a conscious decision to write that day; even if it is just a word; or even a sentence. And when stuck for ideas; daydreaming can work wonders. When you let your conscious mind wander and visit the realm of imagination encompassed in your subconscious; that inner child which thwarts you will become your best friend and can give you some of your best writing material. And according to Phillip Finch, the power of suggestion also carries a lot of weight with your subconscious. If you are told you can’t do something; your subconscious will make you believe you can’t; but if you take some time to daydream about the good/the final goal/dream/accomplishment you will get from your writing; that may help your inner child to release some of the restraints and give you more motivation to write toward your dreams.

Phillip Finch really tells it better than I do; and if you ever get the chance to hear him speak, you definitely should. His talk really gets to the heart of what pretty much every writer struggles with and is inspirational because it shows us that we are all like this and we all have pretty much the same problems as writers; but we can overcome them!