Hunting Demons (your inner censor and inner critic)
This Creative Sparks is part 6/7 of a series from a Ten Minute Artist Edition titled: Experiencing the Artist Way.
You can read the introduction to get an overview before jumping into the sparks. Each creative spark is designed to work on its own, but will have synergy with the other sparks from the same collection.
Little Devils and how to beat them
These are the devils we will be hunting.
Your inner censor and your inner critic.
Having tools to deal with these demons, will result in better creative flow less need to be distracted and a more enjoyable creative process where your artist’s vibe shines through.
Because this is a such a useful stand alone exercise, I’ve made this Spark free for everyone. Please feel free to share it.
I wanted to give you something to pay attention to while writing morning pages. If you don’t write morning pages, you can still try the exercise by doing 2 pages of freewriting about whatever is on your mind right now.
As you write your morning pages(freewriting) you are allowing good orderly direction to flow through you.
You are also letting demons out and onto the page.
Your inner censor and inner critic are two types of devils you want to be aware of.
Both are standing guard to stop creativity from flowing through you.
The inner censor
The inner censor is a powerful but impish little creature. You see good ideas need time and space to develop. This devil stops the for at the source. Like all devils it trades in lies, and will say things like:
“You can’t say that…”
“You don’t really believe that…”
“Some things are better left unsaid…”
“You should be more politically correct…”
“ That’s not what we say as a __(insert identity)__ person/member”
The way to get past this devil is speed and volume, that’s why free-writing works, write fast, get the words down before the devil can finish it’s sentences, and keep writing, imagine a rapper taking a deep breath before unleashing a verse at full speed.
Once it’s out you don’t have to read it or even interact with it you jest need to get it out. Get the gunk out so the water of creativity can flow freely.
Before you even start, remember that this kind of writing is NOT for public consumption, it’s not even for rereading.
It’s more process. A rigorous warmup for whatever your creative pursuit might be. Use speed and volume to overrun your internal censor. use it whenever you feel stuck.
The inner critic.
The internal critic is an inside job kind of devil
Instead of stopping the flow, this devils job is to turn your most inspired truths into lies. The lies might look like this:
But’ I’m too young
But I’m too old
I’m too poor
I’m to rich
in the Artist Way, these are called blurts. And you can’t stop them, so instead, you need to collect them. Make a list. Then your job is to redeem the list by turning blurts into affirmations.
Here’s one from my own practice:
Blurt: “ you don’t have time”
Affirmation: “ I notice useful pockets of time and use the to my advantage”
Artist Action:
List some of the blurts from recent free writing sessions, and rewrite them as affirmations. I like to draw the blurts as little monsters, this helps me recognise them every-time they show up.
Share your drawings in our Artist Way chat
PS:If you like this artist action, you will love this collaboration I do withwith My Friend
called Art Quest where we turn the creative journey into a series of playful quests that we overcome together.For a full list of creative sparks you can visit the Ten Minute Artist : Creative Spark Library. Use it to fill those useful pockets of time you find during the day to get a little snack of creative joy.