Silencing the Inner Critic: How to Overcome Perfectionism an Stop Editing While Writing

Now we come to the part of this series that we’ve been working up to: How do you overcome perfectionism in drafting and stop editing as you write? It’s an age-old question, but it is something that we can learn to overcome as writers. It’s not about abandoning our ideals for our writing style and prose. It’s about moving that focus to later in the editing process. The idea of writing a first draft is just that – writing. It’s going to be messy. It might be incoherent sometimes. What matters is that you get the story on the page and out of your head.

Tricks of the Trade

Let’s go back to the beginning. We started this journey with a simple idea: getting through a first draft without constantly rewriting. We’ve talked about brainstorming ideas using pre-writing activities. We’ve looked at some of the mechanics that you can adopt to help you avoid the pitfalls that lead to editing your drafts while you write. Both are good tools, but if you can’t keep writing once you start, none of those techniques are going to take you far.

The simple fact is, writers are our own worst enemies. I’ve found myself too often trying to perfect a story or a scene as I’m writing it. While there’s always going to be times where, yes, we need to rewrite a scene immediately because it didn’t come out as we’d envisioned it, that’s going to be the rarity. Most of the time our urge to go back and edit a scene or a chapter comes from our need to get things perfect the first time. So, how do you silence that inner critic and overcome perfectionism?

Block the Critic

You can short-circuit your critic’s ability to block your writing. I struggle with this technique because I like to see what I’m putting to page, but I’ve workshopped with writers who swear by it. It’s simple: don’t let yourself see the screen when you write. You can do this by changing your text color, turning off your monitor, or turning it away from you. The idea is to get your mind on your thoughts and not what typos you might be making. Yes, correcting a typo is fine. But your inner critic will grab onto them and use them as a gateway into deeper critiques.

Adjust Your Goals

What goals are you setting for yourself when you sit down to write? Now, ask yourself, are those goals holding you back? It’s important that you set goals that allow you the space to write without tempting the critic to come forth. For some writers, that means focusing on a word count goal. For others, it means focusing on writing a scene at a time.

One recommendation: don’t rely on the same goal every time you sit down to write. Treat it as a vibe. Do you feel like a word count goal is good tonight? Focus on that? Do you have a scene you want to get out of your head? Make that your goal. What you want to avoid are any goals that demand more attention to detail than “get the words out”.

Create a “Future Me” List

Sometimes the critic gets sneaky. Instead of pointing out a mistake, it will tell you that a different idea is better. Maybe you’re writing and suddenly go “Oh! I need to go back to Chapter 2 and fix this thing so that this scene works here in Chapter 6.” I do that one a lot. Don’t go back. It’s a trick. The change is probably needed, but you don’t have to make it now. Have yourself a notepad, on your desk or on your computer, where you can make those little notes. This lets you track the important changes you know you’ll need to make later without pulling you out of the writing flow you were in.

Bringing it Together

These aren’t the only tips you can use, but they’re a few that I or other writers I’ve worked with have found useful. Now, it’s time to put things together into a writing prompt.

We don’t have a plot or character hook with this prompt, because you’re going to start with something you’ve already been working on. This can be a continuation of a previous week’s prompt or the continuation of something else that you’ve written. You’re going to write until you stop. The trick though: you’re going to write wrong. Write down four key details of the passage you’re going to continue from – people, place, an event – and then write down what you’ll change each detail to. Use those new details to continue the same story or scene.

It’s going to be painful, and that’s the point. You’re going to set yourself a goal. It can be a word count goal or to complete a new scene. Whichever you choose, you’re going to write and you’re not going to stop. It doesn’t matter what kind of mistake you make … keep writing.

Compulsive rewriting is a habit we get into as writers. Sometimes, the best way to break a habit is to force yourself to break it. That’s what this writing prompt is designed for. Power through and teach yourself how to write past mistakes and get through that draft.