The Problems and Uses of an Internal Editor

Every writer has things they allow to keep themselves from writing. One of the most common is the internal critic or internal editor – that voice in one’s head that picks apart one’s work, pointing at all the things that are wrong with it, from typos and misplaced commas to major plot holes and lapses in characterization.

There are thousands of writing blog posts dedicated to silencing your internal editor, many with completely contradictory advice. One of the ones I found was phrased as a li...