Silencing the Inner Critic
The Inner Critic. What does yours sound like? Mine sounds like Count Orsini-Rosenberg in the film Amadeus, telling Mozart that his opera has “too many notes.” That nasal, upper-crust drone dripping with scorn gets me every time.
From time to time (or, in my case, most of the time), we all wrestle with our Inner Critic. It watches over our shoulders as we work, and whispers that we’re no good, on the wrong track, insufficiently woke, pretentious, amateurish — a litany of negative gobbledygook that tells us we are bound to fail, that no one will like our work, that we are frauds. Sometimes this voice is just a stinging annoyance or a buzzing in the background. Other times, it grinds us to a crashing halt.
Some artists become paralyzed by this voice, unable to make any progress. Some budding artists never even really begin because of the power this voice can seem to wield.
However much or little your Inner Critic is an obstacle to your work, there are times when you just need to shut it up. After all, this is supposed to be fun and fulfilling, right?
Today, we take a look at some healthy approaches to silencing your Inner Critic without beating yourself up mentally or emotionally in the process.
Identify Your Inner Critic for What It Is
There are two critical factors in understanding the nature of the Inner Critic. First, it’s a part of you. Second, just because it comes from you, that doesn’t mean it’s telling you the truth. The negative self-talk of the Inner Critic is just as damaging as any other destructive internalized self-talk.
Your Inner Critic is built up of all the negative messages you’ve internalized since childhood about what is “good” and what is “bad.”
In a perverse way, it’s trying to protect you from failure and embarrassment … by preventing you from ever risking success or praise in the process.
The Inner Critic is a product of the constantly shifting concept of the self. The Inner Critic exists to protect not you or your work, but its (your) ideas of the self. What will keep me safe? What will protect me from attack or scorn?
Since it comes from you, it’s important to treat the Self Critic gently. It’s not a thing to shout at or punish, because, in the process, you’re shouting at and punishing yourself. Rather, it’s a thing to treat with compassion. There’s a very damaged part of your psyche in there trying to get some attention.
Take a Break
When the Critic in you begins to nag, take a breath and step away if you can. Engage your mind in some other manner — preferably something that brings you joy. Stay away as long as you need to. Even days.
Take a walk outside, doodle, listen to music, call a friend.
Engage in a different creative process. If you’re working on a novel, stop and pick up a musical instrument or draw a picture. If you’re stuck or mired in doubt on a song or a painting, move around. Go outside. Play a video game. DO NOT get on social media.
Take part in anything that lets you exit a self-analytic state and re-enter the unself-conscious flow.
When you return, you’ll see what you were working on with fresh eyes. And, the majority of the time, you’ll instantly see that the Inner Critic was wrong.
Expand Your Circle
My friend, playwright Aaron Henne swears by the importance of creating in community when it comes to silencing his Inner Critic. Rehearsals and script development meetings with his actors and dramaturg provide the opportunity for other voices to join the process, to provide feedback and create dialogue. It’s a safe place to take in challenges to your ideas without derailing the creative process.
Of course, many disciplines aren’t collaborative in the way that the theatre is. However, we can still expand our circle during the creative process.
A trusted coach or mentor, fellow artists (in the same or different disciplines), and therapists provide a valuable sounding board during the creative process. It doesn’t necessarily mean you have to share the work before you’re comfortable doing so. This can just take the form of conversation, of compassionate listening and even just talking shop. It simply means that you benefit from experience and other perspectives.
Examine Your Expectations
Aside from reminding myself that my Inner Critic is a part of me and that I should be gentle with it, examining my expectations is the most important critic-silencing act in my own creative practice.
This is a moment where I revisit my values and my mission. I return to my clarity of purpose and interrogate it. Does it stand? Does the Critic align with my values, my mission or my clarity of purpose? Rarely.
Also, what are my expectations at this moment in the creative process? Have I fallen into the trap of expecting myself to create a perfect first iteration? Am I trying to write to the standard of publication on the first go-round?
This is often the case, and it’s important upon realization to step back and remind myself that the first goal isn’t to get it “right” the first time, but to get it down. As Henne says, “Don’t get it right the first time. Get it right the 10th time.”
Remember that a theatre or dance company rehearses hours for minutes of stage time. A photographer can take 100 photos to get two good ones. It took Leonard Cohen five years to write “Hallelujah.”
Always Create First, Critique Later
I’m not a fan of the advice “write drunk, edit sober” for a number of reasons (also, Hemingway never said that — he practically said the opposite).
But I wholeheartedly agree with the larger sentiment that we must create with our filters off and only apply filters when we return to revise. If we don’t, we’ll never create a fully realized work. It will instead be a restrained almost-work, scuttled by self doubt.
It helps me to visualize my Inner Critic — I make him look just like Count Orsini-Rosenberg, down to the powdered wig and the supercilious grin — and to remind him gently that there will be plenty of time for critique after the first draft is done.
Once that first iteration is down, my critical faculties now have something entirely different to apply themselves to. Now, with my creative mind and analytical mind engaged together, the Inner Critic is defanged. It’s no longer productive to moan about being an imposter or failure.
Instead, my mind turns itself to shaping the piece, making what is already on the page better, rather than preventing anything from reaching the page in the first place. When the Critic begins to rear his head again, I have something substantial to argue against him with.
Turn Your Inner Critic Into an Inner Champion
Yes, that sounds corny. Sounds really corny. But it’s a real thing, and useful.
Remembering that your Inner Critic is a part of you, examine how it works on you. Does it strive to make you perfect or to feel guilty or to fit in? Is it a taskmaster? A controller? (This is an integral part of Internal Family System therapy.)
Understand why your Inner Critic trying to stop you. What does it want to accomplish?
When you recognize your Critic’s strategy, you meet it with a Champion who upholds the opposite. The Perfectionist Critic is met by the joyfully imperfect Champion. The Conformist Critic is met by a Champion who reminds you that your distinct voice and your perspective matter.
This strategy sounds simplistic, but if you commit to sitting with your Critic and interrogating it, truly working to understand it, you’ll find that your Champion does more than simply make it easier to get your work done.
Getting past your Inner Critic enables you to truly embrace the joy of creation and to create your best possible work. Most importantly, it’s an act of self-empowerment.
Those negative messages we’ve internalized since childhood are destructive to far more important things than our art. They damage our sense of self, our relationships, our quality of life. By championing healthy thoughts and behaviors in the creative process, we empower ourselves to do the same in the larger arena of our lives.
