This holiday season, my husband gave me “Embracing Your Inner Critic” by Hal and Sidra Stone.  I’d be insulted, but I found this book a wonderful journey into personal discovery. 

The Stones describe how our inner thoughts can be either a painful saboteur or the motivation to achieve what appears impossible.

They point out the irony of how our inner critic outwardly is our protector from being hurt or abused by others, but in actuality, the inner voice can cause much psychological damage, which exhibit symptoms of shame, anxiety, depression and low self-esteem.  

Targeting writers, this self-help book strives to assist all writers to turn self-criticism into a creative outlet.

We can extrapolate the observations and behavior descriptions to other areas of our lives as well.  We are all wounded souls in one sense or another.  It only seems fair to say that our inner critic has words to say about all sectors of our life…

It is an easy read…and if you ever wondered why you always run late or why you keep dating the same type of guy/girl that makes you insane, the Stones may help shed some light and give you control over your idiosyncrasies.

This is not a particularly difficult book to read.  It could have been more succinct, but the content is sound.  It echoed many things that I’ve heard or read before and connected the dots for me.  For those who might deem this as psycho babble, you  might be right.  Some won’t ever see what the Stones are writing about.  Is it denial or just a lack of introspection?

And of course, what psychological cook book doesn’t come with recipes?Yes, this book comes with exercises to get you out of your psychological rut. 

Will I do the exercises?  Probably.  But maybe not all.

 Do I expect results?  Hope so.

Every November hundreds of writers pump out 50,000 words in their computer.  They participate in the National Novel Writing Month (NaNo).  Obviously, participants think this is a great idea.  However, if you examine this more closely, the program is very limiting in its return on investment.

It reminds me of the young student who failed his spelling test.  He was only able to answer one correctly out of ten; yet, his teacher and his parents praise him for the one word he spelled correctly –all in the name of giving the young student self-esteem.

It seems to me that the enabling teacher/parents only prolonged the inevitable.  In fact, they may have robbed him of the very self-esteem they were trying to promote.  Kids are not stupid.  They know that if they missed 9 out of 10 words that that was not good.   They sense that the praise they received from teacher and parents rang hollow.  How does this feeling of false compliments and encouragement bolster self-esteem?

Participation in NaNo is no different.  NaNo applauds the person who generates 50,000 words of mostly ill conceived thoughts and poor use of grammar.  At the end of November the program acknowledges the participating person by sending a certificate of completion.  The participant prints it out and the display is a symbol of his/her achievement.

However, the writer has to know that the novel is most likely not publishable.  Flawed with plot inconsistencies, character development issues, and pacing problems, this rough novel draft is just that…raw notes.  Spending hours cranking out 50,000 words to earn only a self generated certificate of achievement seems pretty meager for the time and energy spent.   What if the writer invested some pre-planning time?  Might that give the writer a greater sense of accomplishment and give a real boost to self-esteem? 

I’m all for freewriting.  It kind of releases the creative juices.  This is only an exercise. Call me crazy, but the end reward as the program is currently set up does not offset the things you had to sacrifice to write 50,000 words in the space of a month.

If you happen to participate in NaNo. good job in executing self-discipline.  Now what are you going to do with your 50,000 words?