Get the kink out!

[Tom's House]

For me, putting self-criticism on a back burner is a miracle cure. Here’s an analogy. You want to water the lawn or wash the car, but water comes out of the end of the hose in a useless dribble. You look back and see a kink where the hose has doubled back on itself. You shake the kink out and the water flows freely. You’ve got all of it you need. Your creative mind is like that hose. Self-criticism is the kink. There is plenty of creative juice there but it’s not flowing through your fingers and onto the keyboard. So shake the kink out; scrap the critical attitude. Just let it flow. Just start writing. There’s plenty of time for the critical part when you begin the process of revision.

 

[Allan Hunter]

While I do not, in fact, consider BDSM to constitute an identity factor for me personally, I must say this post was not about what I expected it to be about.

 

[Amber]

While I do not, in fact, consider BDSM to constitute an identity factor for me personally, I must say this post was not about what I expected it to be about.

Exactly.

 

[Carol Rose]

Thoughtful post, @Tom's House, and you're absolutely right. Self-criticism can be toxic to a writer.

 

[Paul Whybrow]

There's an old piece of writing advice, which is 'Write fast, edit slowly.' Such an approach works for me, as it avoids any kinks in my thinking, though I do consider what I'm going to write next for a long time, including making notes of things to remember and reams of dialogue appropriate for the scene—not all of it makes it in. Self-censoring in this way is essential. Too many newbie writers create a rod for their own backs, by vomiting out every possible thing that could happen in their story! Not so much an unkinked hose, as a collapsed reservoir.