“You can be a successful writer, but first you must learn to silence your inner critic.” ~Rob Bignell
The things we tell ourselves we become. It’s not easy to silence the inner critic, but it’s a crucial step in every writer’s life.
Fear and excitement are two sides of the same neurological coin.
Both emotions activate the sympathetic nervous system, triggering a biological response that includes:
- Increased heart rate
- Elevated blood pressure
- Heightened sensory awareness
- Release of stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline
The brain’s limbic system, particularly the amygdala, plays a vital role in processing both fear and excitement. Here’s the intriguing part: the amygdala doesn’t distinguish between positive and negative arousal; it merely detects intensity.
We’ve discussed biological and physiological responses to fear before.
- Increased breathing.
- Increased heart rate.
- Peripheral blood vessels in the skin constrict while central blood vessels around vital organs dilate and flood with oxygen and nutrients.
- Blood pumps the muscles so they’re ready to react.
- Muscles at the base of each hair tighten, causing piloerection aka goosebumps.
- Eyebrows raise and pinch together.
- Upper eyelid raises while the lower tenses.
- Jaw may slack and part stretched lips.
- Voice pitch rises, tone strains.
- Posture either mobilizes or immobilizes or fluctuates between both.
- Breath shallows.
- Muscles tighten, especially in the limbs.
- Increased sweating.
Excitement: Physiological Changes
- Adrenaline Release: The adrenal glands release adrenaline, causing an increase in heart rate and blood pressure.
- Increased Respiratory Rate: Breathing becomes faster and shallower to deliver more oxygen to the muscles and brain.
- Heightened Senses: Pupils dilate, improving vision, and senses become more acute.
- Muscle Tension: Muscles tense up in preparation for potential action.
- Blood Flow Redistribution: Blood is directed away from non-essential functions like digestion and towards muscles, preparing for physical activity.
- Hormonal Changes: Dopamine, associated with pleasure and reward, and cortisol, a stress hormone, may also be involved in the experience of excitement.
While the initial neurological response to fear and excitement may be similar, how we interpret the situation determines the way we experience the emotion. Meaning, we possess the ability to turn fear—the root of self-sabotage—into excitement by changing negative thought patterns.
Flip the script in your head by developing a growth mindset, rather than fixed.
A growth mindset—or in our case, a writing mindset—is rooted in positivity. A fixed mindset is nothing but trouble, steeped in negativity.
- Where the negative writer sees a problem, the positive writer seizes the opportunity to grow and learn.
- When the negative writer doesn’t understand something and quits, the positive writer will research, learn, and persevere.
- Where the negative writer equates criticism to a personal attack, the positive writer accepts the feedback, then takes the time to evaluate and reassess.
*Neither should listen to trolls, scammers, or vitriol*
- Where the negative writer gets jealous at another’s success, the positive writer swells with hopefulness—if they achieved it, so can you—and admiration.
- Where the negative writer finds certain tasks like editing tedious and bothersome, the positive writer knows hard work is a worthwhile endeavor.
Writing is a vulnerable act. Alas, we may never escape the inner voice that haunts every writer who ever lived. In fact, it can be helpful at times.
Benefits of the Inner Critic
- Motivates us to act
- Keeps us honest and humble
- Pushes us to succeed. If, and only if, we don’t let it cripple our creativity.
What we do is important.
What we write can touch lives, improve someone’s mood, cure loneliness for a while, or have a positive impact on how they view the world around them.
What we write matters.
Don’t allow the inner critic to rob readers of your voice.
I don’t claim silencing the inner critic is an easy task. Self-sabotage can be merciless.
The next time that tiny voice spits vitriol your way, take a breath and consider why it’s happening.
Are you stressed over a deadline?
Is the story not gelling like you hoped?
Do you need a break from the keyboard?
Even if you can’t uncover why the inner critic came out to play, you can outsmart him by turning fear into excitement. Your brain is already primed and ready!
What are some ways you silence the inner critic?
❦ One of the primary tenets of brainstorming is Deferring judgment. The other is Striving for quantity, which goes along with deferring judgment: If you’re trying to get as many ideas as possible, you’ll also want to avoid judgment.
❦ So, if you want to free up your mind from the inner critic, pick a topic and brainstorm it for 15 minutes. Your mind will remain in this state for 1/2 hour after you conclude your brainstorming exercise, maybe longer.
❦There are many sites on brainstorming on the Internerd. Check out a few of these for the brainstorming methodology and other creativity boosters.
❦For topics to work on, anything will do. For example, what places would you like to visit if you had a year off? Where would you hide a memory stick if your house was going to be searched? Mr. Body has been murdered; what was the murder weapon? Aliens land in your back yard; what do they look like? You’re going to write in a new genre; list possible new pen names. For a meta-topic, what other topics have popped into your mind?
Good tips, J. I was thinking more about writing the first draft or reading yesterday’s work, but brainstorming could work then, as well. I especially like #2. Thanks for adding to the discussion!
This is perhaps a tangent. Airplane school covered emergency situations and what to do. Staying calm and identifying the issue was the first thing. Admittedly, making decisions in the air where you can not pull over and at 150 mph does provide a clarity of thought. The important thing was staying calm. Something that has served me well over the years. Something that freaks out people around me. Something I have taught my children, who have had to put it into practice.
The General Manager at Domino’s was not feeling good. I sat him down and started running the shift. I also worked on the plan on how and when he (not his first heart attack) was going to the ER. He did not help things by leaving his heart meds in his car. After his color and pulse improved, he returned to work. He was shocked that I had a driver set up and he was less than 5 minutes from being “delivered” to the ER by a driver who was going to put his foot down as needed.
My children evacuated a daycare during the St. Louis Tornado. The children all took their buddy’s hand and followed Ms. Yael to a different room (no windows) and they sang songs and had snacks. The babies got loaded into the cribs and were wheeled down the hall. A few wanted to get carried. Scooped they were. Oldest child then got the job of explaining to parents that they cannot use the parking lot because a tree has closed the road.
Stay calm. Work the issue.
What a great comment, Alan. Couldn’t agree more. The moment we panic, we lose power over critical thinking.
Thanks for sharing these stories! They’re the perfect examples of how to regain control in stressful situations and avoid self-sabotage.
Not only do you handle emergencies, you’ve passed on that skill to your girls, Alan. Double congratulations.
This is so timely for me. I’m getting ready to jump into macro edits from my agent for a book that is unusually close to my heart (aren’t they all). I’ve learned to embrace and even look forward to editorial letters. Editors are on our side. They want this book to shine. They’re polishing. But that negative critic in me still tries to steel my joy. I have to tell her to shut up and get out of my way. Thanks for the reminder–this is exciting. Sometimes it’s even fun!
Yes, it is, Kelly! I also love notes from my editor (thank God for them) and the editing process. It’s when we make the book really shine, but it’s also when the inner critic seems to ramp up the negativity.
Best of luck with your editing! Excited for you!
I like that you’ve learned to enjoy the editing process, Kelly. That was a hard lesson for me to learn, and at first I was overprotective of my work. Then I realized, better to read the criticisms in my editor’s notes, when I can fix them, than in the reviews, when it’s too late.
Really enjoyed this blog, Sue. It hits close to home.
Thanks, Elaine. Yeah, it does.
The challenge with the inner critic is that, if you don’t face it squarely, each day, it becomes embedded in your outlook and mindset, and can lead to avoidance behavior and staying away from the keyboard until “a better moment” or until you’ve “worked out a problem.” But the working out of legitimate problem can itself be differed because you become fixated on the perfect solution, when there is no perfect solution in fiction writing, only one that helps the story better be what it is meant to be.
Steven Pressfield likens facing the inner critic to facing a dragon. It will always be there, every day, so you must face it.
Deep, Ujjayi Yoga breathing helps center me, when I remember to do it. Writing sprints. Jumping ahead in the narrative.
I know the inner critic is at work in my outlining when I get too bogged down in details. Right now, that’s my second draft outline for my latest historical cozy mystery. I’ve sorted the first act and part of the second. Now it’s really a case of ensuring that the rest of the story aligns better with what I’ve worked out.
I like your “turning fear into excitement.” Turning any writing obstacle we have into a challenge to be faced, and an opportunity to “level up” by learning and doing, this is the way.
Thanks so much for today’s post, Sue. It was perfectly timed for me. Hope you have a wonderful week filled with words!
You nailed it, Dale. Well said. Especially love your point about thinking of the inner critic as a dragon. Gotta mull over the best beast for my inner critic. Easier to slay that way.
Ooh, I need to look up that form of yoga. Thank you, my friend. Hope you have a productive week!
I’ve always been a glass three quarters full gal, so I probably look at challenges differently than a glass half-empty one. My favorite Bible verse is “And it came to pass.” Everything comes to pass, whether good or bad so I deal with it the best I can until I come out on the other side.
Me too, Patricia. I’m a positive person by nature.
Happy writing!
Great information, Sue. And silencing the inner critic applies to so much more than writing.
What are some ways you silence the inner critic? If my inner critic comes at me with something like “You’ll never be really good at this. Why don’t you just give up?” I recognize it for what it is: feeling sorry for myself. I ignore those messages.
But there are times when the IC is helpful. If it says, “You did a poor job on that last book launch,” I listen and try to find ways to be better next time.
Exactly, Kay. I do the same.
Anne Lamott has a chapter in Bird by Bird about giving yourself permission to write “sh**** first drafts.” Let things flow, you can fix it later. Keep telling yourself that and type.
Exactly, Jim. We can’t fix a blank page. I read Bird by Bird so long ago, I forgot about that chapter. Might be time for a re-read.
Shove that bossy know-it-all into a room overlooking your writing and allow them to take notes. After you finish your day’s work, allow them to speak about specific things not “You are an illiterate idiot.” It takes some training, but the inner critic will eventually behave.
Haha! Excellent advice, Marilynn!
Sue, I agree with Marolynn. Tell the inner critic to sit down and shut up. If they’re so smart, *they* should write a book!
Exactly, Debbie!
Sounds a lot like imposter syndrome. When it hits, I go to the “Books” page on my website and get back to work.
Great way to handle it, Terry. Reading positive reviews also helps.
Good point. I send my Inner Critic outside to play. He’s just a bundle of anxieties with nothing to add, anyway. No point making him work the same hours as me.
My Inner Reader is a different story. I envision him as a younger version of me, ready to become enthusiastically engaged in a scene if I give him half a chance, but a bit on the fidgety side if I let the current moment extend past its sell-by date. I keep him close.
(In general, my target audience is modeled on a younger version of myself, not snooty critics, whom I always mentally dress up with monocles and top hats like Mr. Peanut. And no pants. What’s up with Mr. Peanut, anyway?)
There’s a famous mantra for silencing your Inner Critic. Repeat it as often as you need to. It goes like this: “Shut the f*** up! Shut the f*** up! Shut the f*** up!” Repeat until your inner critic shuts the f*** up. (Replace the asterisks with the letters of your choice.) This is a fairly typical contribution to the self-help art by Richard Bandler.
Hahaha. Perfect mantra, Robert! 😂😂😂
Sue, what a stellar post. Sounds like it hit several of us in the heart.
When my IC gets on her high horse, I turn my office chair around and look at “my” book shelf.
Then I shout at her…”You. Shall. Not. Pass!”
(Worked for Gandalf, right?)
And, back to work I go. 🥳🥳
Sounds like the perfect routine, Deb!