SELF-CRITICISM: Does it Destroy Creativity?
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Freud was the master of finding a problem where none exists. But it is true that passion can turn on a dime. That includes writing. Every writer knows we have a love – hate relationship with our writing. It’s why everywhere you hear the phrase, “Write everyday.” Habits can overcome our passions, or lack of them, and get us through. We find comfort in our habits, but also find a way out because of them.
There are times when we become too self-critical. I didn’t think it possible for a very long time, but after reading some truly terrible books to review, I began to find myself falling into the trap, becoming hyper-critical of my own work. Whatever I wrote wasn’t good enough. And a paralysis of inadequacy took over. I didn’t write for quite a while. But what I found when I picked up a best-selling book and began to read, was that I was good enough. Yes, I’ve written truly awful stuff. But after a few rewrites, and a solid period of walking away to get a better perspective, I learned an important lesson: Nothing kills creativity more than a paralyzing fear of inadequacy.
There’s only one thing certain. That is one’s own inadequacy.
~ Franz Kafka
Kafka was the martyr of self-criticism. His constant frustration over the excruciatingly exacting bureaucrats of his day, helped him create his masterpieces. I’ve had my own issues with bureaucracies, so I understand. Dostoevsky called the attitude of a bureaucrat, “administrative rapture,” and Dr. Ben Carson said, “[they] love the process more than helping people.” But Kafka’s passion drove him to write some amazing stuff. I often imagine that if he lived today he would rail even louder about the bureaucracies, primarily because they’ve honed it to a dangerous point. Still, we can be our own dagger of disappointment and failure, and too often are.
Allow your passions to erupt, then come in days later and pluck that thread to its full potential of resonance, but don’t let it overtake the truth of what you’re writing. Anger can be a great source of creativity. So can pain. We all know love has created some of the greatest poetry ever written. But we need to make sense of our emotions or our readers won’t. Sobriety can also make bland copy — that is sobriety of emotions, not drink — and we learn that emoting can spice it up. Understand that hate informs love, pain helps us understand joy. Self-criticism should help us to work harder, to grow, not keep us from writing. It should help us understand that great writing takes discipline. Rewriting a hundred times might be extreme. Yet, rewriting doesn’t always make it better. I did that to a story and found what I originally wrote was better. Discipline teaches us to know the difference, that sometimes the 100th rewrite really is the best, and sometimes the first is.
We writers walk a tightrope. And if you write simply because you must, then don’t give up on yourself. Take that step to put yourself out there, and don’t criticize yourself into a box that resembles a coffin. Remember that even the best writers have written stinkers.
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