Turning off my inner critic

In order to progress and develop in your creative endeavor, you probably need to turn off your inner critic for a bit. If you doubt each brush stroke or second guess every element of your process, your work probably isn’t going to be sustainable. You won’t have room in your mind to make your best work if your mind is full of self doubt and inner criticism.

Stephen King advises writers to write the first draft behind a locked door and to complete it before you show it to anyone else. I have found a similar strategy to be helpful with my artwork. In the book Clear Seeing Place, the painter Brian Rutenberg, who I would be my last dollar read King’s book On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft before embarking on his book, says the same thing about painting. Both books are worth reading.

I have been filming some of my working process and I want to be able to share that without sabotaging my own work. I think it is possible, but I also will continue to create work that may never be shared. This will give me a chance to do work that breaks my own rules and habits and allows me to continue my work without being too self-conscious.

I am am going to have to find that balance with my practice of sharing my work in progress without too much self-criticism.