Recommendation – a great post about freeing up your internal editor

free your internal editorDoes your inner editor hold you back with all its comments and criticisms? Mine never shuts up, and it’s hard to ignore, but then….

I was a few days behind on my Google Reader, and I just came across this post on Janice Hardy’s site which really spoke to me. It’s by guest author Amy Butler Greenfield, who suggests you give your inner editor a sheet of paper or a separate document to record all its little gripes and groans.

I love this idea! Because if I let the nagging creature speak its piece, perhaps it will settle down while I carry on scribbling.

Worth a try?

 

2 thoughts on “Recommendation – a great post about freeing up your internal editor

  1. Keep the inner editor at bay until you’ve got at least a couple of drafts under your belt, then let the inner editor loose. 🙂

    • Yes, that’s the way I’ve always tried to do things too. But I can’t switch it off. I’m not talking about little changes to grammar and punctuation here, more gaping plot holes and questions, and sarcastic remarks ‘Really? You’re going to let them do that in this scene are you? But what about….?’
      And if I completely ignore the doubts and misgivings of this nagging little editor, eventually I seize up, so I’m trying to make little notes as I go along. I don’t go back to ‘fix’ things, but at least I’ve got the notes there, and when I finish that’s a good starting place for a thorough edit.
      This may not work, of course, I’m still finding my way with this writing business, but I’ll update the post if I ever finish my draft using this method. 🙂

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