“O
ur doubts are trai-
tors, And make us
lose the good we oft
might win, By fearing to at-
tempt.”
-William Shakespeare
If you talk to an artist of any
genre, and ask them to tell you
the scariest thing they can imag-
ine; the thing that keeps them up
at night; the thing that even gives
Stephen King nightmares and
they will begrudgingly tell you
what it is. It’s the blank page. It
doesn’t matter if it’s a piece of
paper a canvas or a white rectan-
gle on a computer screen.
When we look at starting some-
thing new, be it a business, a
dance, or stepping into a gym
or a classroom, we must watch
out and beware because we are
about to be ambushed by the
Infernal-Internal Critic; and like
any melodramatic villain, he too
has his minions. The Infernal-In-
ternal Critic will take anyone
who is trying to break-away from
the groove they’ve become en-
trenched in and tie them to the
railroad tracks to be run over by
his Gerbil of Doubt.
Here’s how he gets his hold;
I’ll be working on something
creative, and doubt will begin
to creep in. A small doubt will
creep in, disguised as an inno-
cent thought like, “I know there’s
a better word than that one.” The
doubts start out slow, gaining
momentum with every thought.
Until it’s like a gerbil on an exer-
cise wheel – always speeding up
but never getting anywhere. The
Gerbil of Doubt starts gaining
velocity until it hits light speed.
And, like anything traveling fast-
er than the speed of light, it can
travel through time. Everything
becomes suspect. Everything I
had ever written and everything I
intend to write until I don’t know
why I started writing in the first
place.
The Gerbil of Doubt and its
suitcase filled with “Give-Up”
and “Don’t Try” tours my mental
universe while I avoid the task
and hope it will all go away. I
succumb to writer’s block and
the Gerbil of Doubt win and the
Infernal Internal Critic twirls
his mustache and rubs his hands
with glee. He’s been proven right.
“You really weren’t meant to be a
success.”
The idea of a critique is to make
the piece or the plan better. A
true critic will talk about what
they enjoyed in the work as well
as what parts have holes. They
will not to take the thing apart
for the sake of having power over
the artist. And they won’t make
the critique personal; dragging
your life’s history into what is
troubling them about the piece.
A good critique will leave you
feeling thoughtful, not decimat-
ed. When the Internal Critic is
on duty, external criticism, no
matter how well intended and
helpful, can cut like razor-sharp
teeth.
The Infernal-Internal Critic is
about destruction. It is that little
voice in your head that says “No!
That’s wrong! You can’t do that!
What will people think?” They
can be a composite of many peo-
ple: from that control-freak boss
we once had, to the third-grade
teacher with the icy stare.
This voice is made up of every
person who never had a kind
word to say and made every
problem in the world your fault.
Somewhere along the way, we’ve
taken these negative voices and
internalized them and molded
them into the Infernal Internal
Critic So, if you’re willing, we are
going to try a little magic. We are
going to fire the Infernal Internal
Critic.
First thing to do is to get them
out of your head and into some-
thing concrete. Draw them on
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