Comments | khatalyst: The internal critic

khatalyst

The internal critic

Nov 01, 2006 12:10

One of the first things writing teachers tell you is to shut up your internal critic. Just tell it to take a hike. Or promise it that it can have its say later, if it will just take a snooze now. Or just keep a mental cancel stamp handy to eliminate its influence ( Read more... )

Comments 6

justlikepoetry November 1 2006, 16:13:29 UTC

i'm pretty sure i have had almost that same conversation with myself.

khatalyst November 1 2006, 20:31:48 UTC

That, sweetie, is not yourself ( ... )

justlikepoetry November 2 2006, 00:09:55 UTC

what i hear are the voices of a few professors of mine that pulled me aside and told me that i couldn't write. nearly every time i start to write something, those are the voices i hear. they yell "that's SO cliché" every time i try and write something that isn't straight up prose, and when it is straight up prose, they tell me i have no authority to state what i'm stating and that no one cares.
i'm not very adept at telling those voices to go soak their collective heads....

khatalyst November 2 2006, 02:50:08 UTC

Hmm. You remind me of when I was trying to deal with all of D's comments about how lucky I was that an ugly, old bag like me had a flashy guy like him, and besides if I wasn't smart enough to get rid of him, it wasn't his fault how I felt.

Yikes.

First if these people said those sort of things, they misused their positions and betrayed your trust and intellectual dependence. Bad, bad people. Deserving of smacking. Not you, them.

Second, you sound altogether too beaten down. I mean, if you can't tell your own superego to shove a sock in it when it's being obnoxious and unhelpful, who can you tell? It's there to help you, that's all. If it's not helpful, it's your choice to shut it off. It's part of you, so you don't need to be nasty to yourself. Just pat it on the head and tell it to come back when you're not so busy.

Why don't you call me sometime?

Thread 6