#267: 5 Ways to Quiet Your Inner Critic and Stay in the Writing Zone

Welcome to Kingdom Writers, where we help equip and empower Christian writers of all genres to share your unique gifts with the world. We're your hosts, C.J. and Shelley Hitz.

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Hey, Kingdom writers, do you want to learn five ways to quiet your inner critic? That's what we're going to talk about in today's training. My name is Shelly Hitz.

And I'm CJ Hitz.

And we are your writing mentors Inside Christian Book Academy. And we're so excited to share with you a new format that we're going to start rolling out in April 2021. So we decided, we've been just praying and asking God, how can we serve you well? How can we help you to write and publish and market your books? And so what we're gonna start doing is the first week of the month, it's going to be a writing well training. So it's gonna be about writing and some form of a tip or encouragement regarding writing. The second week, it's gonna be published with a purpose, and we're going to really focus more on the publishing aspect. And then the third week is marketing minute. That's where we're going to give you a quick tip for marketing. And finally, the fourth week of the month is mentoring moment, and that will be more of spiritual encouragement, which we have been doing so well over these last couple years. But we also want to sprinkle in more practical ideas and tips. And so today we're going to be talking about five ways to quiet your inner critic. We all have an inner critic as we write, don't we, cj?

Oh, absolutely. I've definitely dealt with this one through the years. And, you know, it can get louder and louder, and we definitely have to take steps to be intentional about quieting that inner critic.

Yeah. And so there's definitely some practical things that you can do along with that, the spiritual things, because how many of you know that when you sit down to write, when you sit your butt in the chair to write, the enemy's gonna be coming after you. And that's why we encourage you to have your prayer team and all of that as well. But there's some very practical things we're gonna share with you today. And, you know, when you're in your writing zone, have you ever been in that zone where it's just flowing and it's almost like a euphoric moment? You know, I Mean, when you're a creative and you get into that zone, they've actually done research on this. It's. It's literally a moment that things are just flowing and going well, but you're typically using more of the right side of your brain. And so the creativity is flowing, it's coming out. And yet when you're editing or if you're outlining or researching, those tend to be tasks that you're doing a little more on the left side of your brain. And so what I often like to say is the two tend to want to conflict. Right. You get in that writing zone and then all of a sudden. Did you spell that right? Does that sound right? What are you doing there? You didn't research that. You don't have a reference. Da, da, da. You know, and all of a sudden it shuts down your creativity. Has that ever happened to you, cj, where you're in the middle of a creative writing zone and those thoughts pop up?

Yeah, well, I'm. I'm naturally one of those people that actually edits as I go. And yeah, by the time I'm finished, the nice thing is, is that, oh, you know, maybe I don't have quite as many, you know, punctuation edits now. I'll still send it to. To an editor and have them really clean it up, but.

Rarely am am I going to get to the end and. And there's going to be like a serious punctuation, you know, type of error.

Yeah. And everyone is different. And we always recommend, don't try to shove a round peg into a square hole. So don't try to be like cj. Don't try to be like me. But for the majority of people, I find that when you're trying to edit at the same time that you're writing, it's so easy to shut down that creative flow. And so there might be a, you know, a compromise, kind of like what C.J. does. Like, maybe you're writing it and then you come back and you do an edit over. But I typically don't recommend trying to do it both at the same time. It's just gonna slow you down. And these are things that people have told me and that I've experienced myself. When that happens, the inner critic might say, you're not spelling that right. Well, who are you to even write a book when you don't even know how to spell? This is horrible. You might as well stop now and not even try to write this book. And on and on it goes. So let's get into five ways that you can quiet that inner critic so that you can stay in your writing zone. We want nothing more than for you to get your book done, publish it, share your words with the world, and for God to be able to use it powerfully and in mighty ways. So the first one, this is something a lot of our Christian Book Academy members have done, is simply highlight an area that will need more editing or research later. So there might be something that pops up and you realize you need to figure out what was the reference for that quote, or I need to do a little more research in this area. And instead of stopping the flow of writing, you can somehow highlight or tag that part in your manuscript. So some of our members have done this by, like, using a different color or highlighting the text. You can do that in most any word processor, or if you're writing by pen or pencil, just have your highlighter out. You know, make a little note. If you're writing, like I said, with pen and paper, you can also draw a little asterisk or an arrow next to it. You can use those little sticky notes, those little ones that look like little tabs. And, you know, there's so many different ways, but basically you're just telling your brain, I'll remember to do this later. I've highlighted it. It's okay, I've taken care of it. Because otherwise that inner editor, that inner critic is going to be like, wait, we didn't fix that. Wait, wait, I don't want to forget that. Ah, you know, and it's going to be fixating on that thing instead of allowing you to continue your writing.

Yeah. One of the pictures that I get in terms of, you know, allowing our inner critic to take over, it's kind of like, you know, if you're outside watering the flowers or you're watering your garden, and then all of a sudden somebody comes along and kinks the hose real quick. But they. They do it, you know, and it, it kind of just. Yeah, stops the flow. And there's just that constant back and forth and. And then you've gotta leave your spot, put the. The hose down, see what's going on back there.

Unkink the hose.

It's distracting. And so, yeah, you want that smooth flow. And if that means just throwing, you know, I guess sometimes we even call it a brain dump. This is something even before the, the writing process starts. But still, as you get in that flow of writing, you may just. You may need to dump the words on there and worry about editing later as we've mentioned. But if you don't, how many know that sometimes those words can be gone?

Yeah.

You know, you're, you're starting to be critical and all of a sudden that thought eludes you now and you didn't write it down. So, you know, sometimes they can just disappear. Those darn thoughts can be really good at disappearing.

Yeah. So the first idea is just to highlight or somehow mark where you need to come back later to do more research. And the second idea is to turn off spell check. So spell check can be a constant distraction because it shows you where your potential spelling and grammar mistakes are as you write. And you know, I like to use the Grammarly, the free form of Grammarly for even like social media posts and things like that. But it is distracting and I find sometimes getting out of the flow of what I was trying to write or what I was trying to say in my post. And the same thing goes for your book. And so, you know, it's important. Definitely, 100%. We have a whole process we teach inside Christian Book Academy on self editing. But you know, again, you know, it's, we don't typically recommend that you do it as you're writing. You can correct little things here and there, but you may actually just want to turn off this spell check. And in the notes for this training you'll find a couple links how to do that in Microsoft Word or Google Docs. But pretty much, you know, you can do that in almost any word processing software. The third tip is to consider using a text editor or distraction free writing tool. So you know, those are also tools that don't highlight potential edits like your typical word processor. So instead of going through the hassle of turning off spell check, just go into a very simple tool and there's a lot of those out there. You can just Google distraction free writing tool and a lot of options will come up. The fourth tip is one that I don't know that I personally could do, but several writers have told me they do this so I thought I would just mention it. But but is to actually turn off your computer screen as you type. Now you'd have to be really confident in your typing skills. Like I don't think I could ever do this. But we're just giving you tips, we're giving you ideas. Or in another way you could just use pen and paper. So basically instead of being on a computer typing it in, just use pen and paper. And that's especially good.

If that's where the flow comes for you. My mom personally Personally, for her.

It'S pencil, pencil and paper. And it literally, like, if she's using a pen instead of a pencil, that shuts down some of her writing creativity as well. So the basic idea is to do what works best for you.

Yeah. And then finally, the fifth.

Way is to talk to your inner editor. Actually talk. So let the editor, part of your brain know that you're going to get back to the editing later, that it's okay, calm down, talk them off the ledge. But right now, you're writing, and you need to focus on one task at a time. And, you know, there's this great story in, in the Gospels, specifically Mark, chapter four, where Jesus and his disciples find themselves in a raging storm out on the Sea of Galilee. And the disciples are frantic and they wake Jesus up. And it says right after that, here I'm going to read verse 39. It says, When Jesus woke up, he rebuked the wind and said to the waves, silence, be still. And suddenly the wind stopped, and there was a great calm. And what that tells me is that, first of all, Jesus isn't too concerned. He's even sleeping during the storm. They had to wake him up. But then once he wakes up, it's not a big deal. You know, this huge storm that has them fearing for their lives.

Basically is a yawner to Jesus. And we have these things, these inner critic storms that rise up within us sometimes. And I fully believe as well, we have an enemy, and there is resistance there as well. And so we can't discount that, whether it's our own inner critic or whether it's an actual spiritual attack trying to distract us from completing that. That writing flow, we need to tell our inner critic, silence, be still. And, you know, if you look this up, the Greek word here actually implies putting a muzzle, like, on an animal, like a dog. You just think of a raging dog that can't control what. Whether they bite someone, a visitor or whatever, and you have to put a muzzle on that dog to keep them under control during a period and even to get a message across to them. You will not bite our friends, or.

You will not bark.

You're not gonna. Yeah. Wake our neighbors up. And so Jesus is essentially putting a muzzle on this storm, saying, silence, be still. You will not go any further. And don't we need to do that at times with our inner critic? Those storms begin to rage. Pretty soon we're almost ready to capsize our writing flow. And we just have to say, we need to stop right there and speak to it. And that's the fifth. The fifth method here is to talk to your inner editor. And if you need to get really aggressive and say, I'm going to put a muzzle on you, Stop, be still. This can wait till later. Then you have to do it. Sometimes we have to get aggressive with that inner critic.

Yeah. And learn that this is common. It's something that we all face. We all face the inner critic, the inner editor. And find the flow that works best for you. And so really you have to find what works best for you. Typically, I would say most writers will do better when you allow yourself to write and then you come back and you self edit that section. So do it by section by section. So you don't have to like just write the whole work, you know, the whole book and then do all the editing, self editing at once. Because then that can get overwhelming. But maybe do section by section. So write out a section when you're in the flow and then go back and begin to self edit. But do it in separate sections so that you can really turn off that inner editor. So again, five ways to quiet your inner critic and stay in the writing zone. Number one, highlight an area that will need more editing or research later. Number two, turn off spell check those distractions, those little red lines. Right. Number three, use a text editor or distraction free writing tool. Number four, might try to turn off your computer screen or you know, use old school paper and pen or pencil. And then number five, talk to your inner editor. So we hope that these tips were helpful for you. If so, let us know, Let us know which one you think would be most helpful for you. And cj, why don't you close us in prayer?

Father, we thank you so much for this episode. I pray that it would be helpful for those that are watching, listening. We ask, Lord, that you would help us to calm our inner critic. And we also come against any resistance that would keep us from getting into those flows. We thank you that just like you calm storms when you walked during your 33 years here on earth, you're still calming storms today. So I pray for the person that endeavors to write that you would calm their storm. Put a muzzle on anything that would.

Be pushing against them. And we're going to ask this in Jesus name. Amen.

Amen. Well, thank you so much, friends. Kingdom writers, let's unite. Let's overcome our inner critics, the inner editors, and allow God to flow through us. It's a partnership between us and the Lord. Right? CJ often says that we are pens. What is it, priestly pens.

Priestly pens in the hands of the author of life.

I love that we're priestly pens in the hands of the author of life. And so we're, it's, it's a partnership with him. And so we're, we're praying for you, we're cheering you on and we will talk to you next time.

God bless you guys.

Bye.

Thank you for listening to this episode of Kingdom Writers. We believe that you as a Christian writer have a specific role to play in the kingdom of heaven to impact lives for eternity.

And because of this, we choose to pour out our lives into encouraging writers like you to not only tell your stories, but to take the courageous step step of self publishing your stories in books that will outlive you and leave behind a powerful legacy. This podcast is sponsored by Christian Book Academy where we help you give birth to your books. We invite you to join our community of Kingdom writers.