Last week, I talked about the power of critique.

I touched briefly on how critique is important and improves us as a writer, and how it’s not good to let your inner critic take control in times of editing. But that still leaves us with a very important question.

How the h*ck am I supposed to DO that?!

Fear not, my friends, for your savior has arrived!

I’m kidding. Honestly, I wish I knew an exact twelve-step plan for how to walk into a meeting where you are critiqued and walk away without struggling against your inner critic. This is still something I deal with. In fact, I struggle with it so much that the moment I say, “It’s actually not that bad” about my writing, a record scratches somewhere in the distance as everybody stops, mouths dropped, to turn and stare at me.

But, I have found a couple of mindset changes that help me the most when confronting that ever-present, never-ceasing, critical inner voice.

Not every project works.

This is something I touched on last week.

Not every project of yours is going to work and that’s okay!

If you’re a professional author, not every project you write is going to be published. In fact, not every novel you write should be published. I don’t know about you, but I process my feelings a lot when writing. Some of those words aren’t—and won’t ever—be ready for the world to read. It doesn’t mean I shouldn’t have written that book or short story, either. This leads to my next point.

Every word you write counts.

Every word you put on the page grows your skill and talent. Eleven years ago, in October of 2013, I decided to write a novella. I had a dream to become a professional author and I was going to make it happen. I sat down and I wrote around 2,000 words every day until I was done. That’s about 10,000 words a week. I ended at 32,574 words, patted myself on the back, and decided to go back and do a light edit for grammar.

I reread the first chapter and realized with abstract horror that it was terrible. But I would have never known it was poor writing if I hadn’t sat down and drummed out 32,000 words. Just like with any skill, it takes time and practice to get good at something.

Looking back on your old writing and noticing that it’s not very good is a good thing. It shows you’ve improved. Kyle Peters talks about this in an episode of the 90-day Novel Challenge that goes into great detail about this very thing. Go watch it here!

Be intentional with your thoughts.

This next one isn’t a single mindset to have but is a way you should live, whether you write or not.

Everybody has a different voice in their head that tells them different things. Commonly it’ll be things like, “you’re not good enough” or “This is garbage” or “I’ll never succeed”.

Only you know the thoughts that tear you down the most. When you get a bad review or receive a harsh critique of your work, it can be so easy to give into those thoughts. They’re often the first thoughts to come to mind. This is what makes taking critique so hard.

Don’t let yourself think those things. Intentionally reframe what you’re thinking and intentionally restate those thoughts in a positive way. Check out this writing reframe for an example (and follow my Instagram or Facebook for more of these!)

Try saying…

Taking every thought captive…

God calls us to take every thought captive and to have a renewed mind. If you said your negative self-hate-fueled thoughts to someone else, would you be loving them? No? Then don’t freaking say it about yourself!

I’m going to leave you with a challenge this week. Are you ready?

Challenge: invite Jesus into your thought-life. Ask him what he thinks about your story. Ask him to reframe the thoughts and to renew your mind. 😊 See what He has to say about the matter.

---

Want to read a short story about the inner critic? Here’s one for free!