Great piece. And this is another example of Bateson’s “logical type” in communications (mentioned elsewhere). An editor is of different “logical type” from the creator of the work. Bateson (in “Mind and Nature”) likens it to the difference between a wire (which conducts the flow of an electrical current) and a switch (which turns the flow on and off). A similar analogy could be pipe and valve or any of a number of similar variants. I wholeheartedly agree with the idea of the “inner critic … being too much of a problem and [needing to] distinguish it from your authentic writing voice,” If you fiddle with the switch too much, you cannot get the current to flow reliably.
It is essential to separate the creator and the editor, or inner critic when you practice writing, so that the creator has plenty of room to breathe, experiment, and tell it like it really is. If the inner critic is being too much of a problem and you can’t distinguish it from your authentic writing voice, sit down whenever you find it necessary to have some distance from it and put down on paper what the critic is saying, put a spotlight on the words—“You have nothing original to say, what made you think you could write anything anyone would want to read, your writing is crap, you’re a loser, I’m humiliated, you write a load of rubbish, your work is pathetic, and your grammar stinks …” On and on it goes!
Say to yourself, It’s OK to feel this. It’s OK to be open to this.
You can learn…
View original post 265 more words
Still Another Writer's Blog 