This is K.M. Wyland and you are listening to the Helping Writers Become Authors Podcast. I hope you enjoyed this author's podcast.

I hope you enjoyed this week's episode,

The Writers Inner Critic.

Ten ways to tell if yours is healthy.

Ah, the Writers Inner inner critic. It's that widely inner editor who has such a way of getting

in the last word and first and middle words on any writing session or project.

Most of the time when writers speak of the inner critic,

there's a fair amount of self-deprecating exaggeration

of how ruthless that little voice can be. We joke about the inner critic as a universal experience,

but for many writers at one time or another, the inner editor can turn into a counterproductive tyrant.

And yet, as I wrote in a post long ago, the inner editor is really a writer's friend.

When healthy, the inner critic is that guide in our heads

showing us how to improve. Every writer needs an editor after all. Without a healthy inner critic, our writing would inevitably drown in a sea of

self-indulgence. The critic in our heads drives us to be better, to discipline our technique, to exert the energy and

effort to do our best, and then learn how to make it better. So why do so many writers struggle with their inner editor?

Ultimately, the problem, of course, is not the inner critic or editor or the fact that we have one, but rather with certain toxic

manifestations or patterns. In short, the problem is that the inner critic is all too often unhealthy.

Even writers who are able to consistently access their healthy inner critic may still find that

certain unhealthy patterns crop up in certain areas of their

process.

So the question I'm exploring today is how to increase the health and effectiveness of the very necessary

inner critic while diminishing the unhealthy effects of unbalanced and ineffective toxicity.

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