That Nagging Inner Critic

New Books - Photo by Ellie Morris

“A non-writing writer is a monster courting insanity.”

 ̶  Franz Kafka

[Letter to Max Brod, July 5, 1922]

Lately, I’ve been a gloomy soul. More than a little gloomy, in fact. There’s just something about long summer days and weeks that stretch into months that makes being away from the routine of university almost unbearable.

Summer should be about relaxing and abandoning all cares to the wind. Well, I’ve tried. If I spent my days doing nothing but reading in the garden, going for walks, and visiting friends, my inner critic would still hunt me down and demand to know what I’m doing with my life. There’s always that little voice in the back of my mind: “You should be writing. You’re wasting time.”

Apparently, I can only be happy when I’m working. Even as a child I forced myself to draw something new every single day, when making art was my favourite pastime and future career ambition. Perhaps pushing myself into a state of burnout was what eventually caused me to pack away my pencils and paintbrushes; I very rarely draw and paint these days, and the thought of it makes me wary of following the same path with my writing. It’s about balance, but then sometimes you just have to give in to the critic that hounds you. It’s the only way to shut the damned thing up! I did, and my mood instantly improved.

Nothing much compares to the feeling of taking out my red biro and striking through the words that no longer fit my current manuscript! Editing the first chapter of my novel thrilled me more than I thought it would. I could see my old mistakes, and it was clear how much I have improved over the course of the year. The confidence boost was more than enough to get me working again. I even decided to submit my writing to a competition that caught my attention!

We’ll see how the competition goes (I’m pretty excited!), but for now, here are some of my tips to get back to work on your writing WIP:

• Find some new books to read! Try out something from an author you've never read before.
• Write a blog post.
• Try for at least 500 words a day. Failing that, 200 works in a pinch. Just get something on the page. It doesn't even need to be good.
• Find somebody to hold you accountable to your writing goals! Ask them to nag you every single day about your progress. 
• Try writing a poem or script instead. 
• If you are struggling to get back in touch with your characters, why not write diary entries from the character's perspective, detailing a week in their lives? Their week could be as hectic and stressful as possible - keep pushing them to their breaking point! Make them miserable! Perhaps you could write about an ordinary week in their lives? What kind of routine do they follow? How do they feel about their life? What is important enough to them to write down? Can your find their voice? 
• Edit what you have already written. 
• Why not enter a competition?