SMACK Success Story: Clare Gailey

I’ve been low on ideas for blog posts lately, and I just pin-pointed why: the Inner Critic hasn’t been around. For days.
So I figured I’d write my own little success story of what daily life feels like without General Zod around.

You have So. Much. Time.
You’re doing more than you’ve ever done, but you never feel rushed. If you schedule a task and then real time doesn’t allow it to happen, you can immediately see another chunk of time when you can get it done.
If something doesn’t happen today, you rest, knowing that it’ll happen tomorrow or next week. You never feel like you’re sacrificing anything you love.

You are supremely adaptable.
Whether you’re alone or with friends or with strangers, or flowing between all three, you have no worries or anxiety, no matter what your old fears used to be. You never feel like you need to escape.

Your digestive system works better.

You may still have a “big” problem or two, but they aren’t scary anymore.
In fact, they hardly feel like problems, because you see so many options for taking action to solve them. All those options fall into an easy line of baby steps. You know what to do and when to do it, and if now isn’t the right time for it, you don’t think about it. I just had to give up sugar, which scared the hell out of me: but now all the necessary adjustments feel like a game of strategy. It really, in all honesty, feels fun.

You still have moods, but you can always identify what caused the moods: something you ate, or not stretching out in the morning, or just an old mental habit. Usually I get in a bad mood when I’m people-pleasing.

You don’t feel fundamentally guilty about anything.
You’ve lived with doubting yourself for so long, you now trust that you are not a jerk, which means you don’t have to be such a people pleaser anymore. You allow other people to be more flexible instead of you bending over backward all the time.
If you slip up, you apologize. If the other person is still upset, you give them time and space, and you don’t worry about it in the meantime.
And if you slip up with yourself, if you have ice cream on a no-sugar diet, for example, you don’t worry about it. You live through the sugar hangover the next day, and the next day you don’t cheat. It never even occurs to you to beat yourself up, because it’s so obvious that you’re human and that’s what we do.

Superlatives are GONE.
There is no such thing as “He is the best man I have ever met or will ever meet.” There is no such thing as “best” anything, which relieves the pressure (for everybody) to live up to impossible standards or hold on to things and people.

Jealousy is GONE.
Somebody’s got something you want? Then you’re thrilled to know that you can learn how to be that way or have that, too.

And you’re thrilled to be a beginner.
In fact, you’re so happy to be a beginner, you seek it out, even within disciplines you’ve been mastering for years. Being a beginner keeps every minute of the day fresh and beckoning. If your brain ever starts to spiral, you have a zillion other, better things to think about: the little baby step problems you need to solve to play a harmonica, maybe, or to cook four meals in less than five hours.

***

I caught myself thinking of this phase as a state of grace, but it isn’t. I earned this through years of effort and struggle with the Inner Critic. Instead of assuming that this phase will eventually end, I’m assuming that it won’t. I might temporarily forget, but this is my new ground state, to which I will always return, whenever I want. WAHOOOOO!!!

Smackdown Success Story: Rosanne Bane – Part One

Rosanne Bane is a creativity coach and author of Dancing in the Dragon’s Den: Rekindling the Creative Fire in Your Shadow. She’s coached writers, artists, musicians, performers and other creative people to move through resistance to achieve their creative dreams. She has taught creative process classes at the Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis and in the University of Minnesota’s Complete Scholar program. She’s written hundreds of articles in diverse publications and is seeking an agent for her upcoming nonfiction book, Write Anyway: How to Keep Showing Up for Your Writing No Matter What! and her science fiction novels, The Essential Path and Freedom Path. You can visit her website www.RosanneBane.com for more information or email her.

You’re a creativity coach. What does that mean?
It means I’m privileged to have talented writers, artists, musicians, performers, healers and other creative people trust me with their deepest challenges and their greatest joys. When I’m at my best as a coach, I listen empathically and ask questions that give the client an ‘a-ha’ insight into her or his life and creative process. I meet my clients where they are, without judgment, and encourage and support them to get where they want to be as writers and artists. When clients do what they said they were going to do, we celebrate the success and talk about how to stay motivated and keep moving. When clients don’t do what they said they were going to do, I help them recognize their resistance and work with them to develop strategies to overcome that resistance.

How can creativity help combat the Inner Critic?
Creativity is all about facing critics – inner and outer. Criticism is deadly to creativity because it prevents us from acting from our creative brain, our cortex. This is the part of the human brain that can imagine what doesn’t exist yet and make plans to transform dreams into reality. When we self-motivate, when we take action to change the future, we’re drawing on capacities of the cortex.

Criticism causes stress and makes us feel threatened, which switches the cortex offline and turns the limbic brain on. The limbic brain is our instinctual, fight-or-flight brain. The limbic brain doesn’t care about being creative; it just wants to avoid the threat. We regret not being creative or berate ourselves for not being creative, but the truth is, we can’t be creative when the limbic brain is running the show.

Have you ever had clients who have such a strong Inner Critic that they are completely stuck in a particular area of their life?
Yes. I see so many people who want to write or paint or make music or create in some way who spend far too much time thinking about it, talking about it, feeling guilty about it, and never actually doing what they love to do.

The deer-in-the-headlights feeling that so many people get when they sit down to write or create is classic limbic brain response. Mammals always freeze when threatened. Then the limbic brain decides whether to stay and fight or to run away. The urge to leave the desk or the studio, to go do something else, anything else, to sort your sock drawer or check your email or seek answers in the fridge are all variations of the flight response. Forcing yourself to sit there and face the blank screen or the blank canvas is a variation of the fight response. Because it’s part of the fight response, it’s often accompanied by self-criticism or criticizing others. And that criticism coming from the limbic brain’s fight response can be dangerously nasty.

To be able to consistently write or create, you have to learn to relax, which turns the limbic brain off and brings the creative cortex back online. Helping people figure out their own unique way to relax and stay calm in the face of the Inner Critic or an external critic is a big part of my work as an instructor and coach.

Is there hope for people with insanely brutal Inner Critics?
Absolutely.  

How do you help people who can’t see what they are doing to hold themselves back?
I tell my writing students and clients that if they want to write well, they have to be willing to write badly. To write well, you have to write. To write at all, you have to be willing to write badly. It’s true for all forms of creative expression.

You never know, on any given day, whether you’re going to write/create great stuff or produce total and complete garbage. You have to show up anyway. One day you find gold. Another day you just shovel muck. You have to put in a certain number of days shoveling the muck to find the gold. And you never know what you’ll find on any given day: gold or muck. You have to hold the intention that you will write or create something wonderful and at the same time have no expectations or demands that today’s work will be any good at all. Expectations open the door for the Inner Critic. Demands are the language of the Saboteur.

Smackdown Success Story: Rosanne Bane – Part Two

Part Two. Click here to read Part One.

In your book Dancing in the Dragon’s Den, you wrote a lot about the saboteur. How do you know the difference between when you’re sabotaging yourself and when your Inner Critic is actually helping you?
I think the Inner Critic and the Saboteur are pretty much synonymous. I don’t think the Inner Critic is ever helpful. I know the Saboteur never is. The Inner Critic and the Saboteur are the voices of judgment.

My perspective is that every artist must have discernment, but judgment is never useful. Judgment is final: this is good (no need to improve) or this is bad (no possibility of improving). You have to discern what’s working and what options could improve your work.

How does the Inner Critic show up in your life?
My Saboteur is very subtle. The Saboteur always lies and my Saboteur lies by telling partial truths, usually on some variation of ‘This little thing won’t matter.’ For example, “So what if you don’t show up for your writing today, you can always put in extra time tomorrow.” True, I can skip a day without disastrous results and true, I could put in extra time the next day, but the deeper truth is that if I don’t show up on Monday, it’s harder and scarier to show up on Tuesday. Every day I miss makes it harder to come back. Even more significant, if I tell myself I’ll write every day and then I don’t show up one day, I’ve lied to myself. That feeds the Saboteur and makes it stronger. It’s vital that I keep my word to myself.

Has your own Inner Critic ever kept you from doing something that you wish you’d had the courage to do? What?
Yes and no. The Inner Critic/Saboteur has certainly delayed many of my dreams. But I’m not willing to give up, and as long as I keep showing up, taking action and doing what I can to get out of the limbic brain, where the Saboteur seems to thrive, and back to my creative brain, I’m doing okay.

I don’t know why we all have a Saboteur, but we do, so it must have some purpose. Like M. Scott Peck said “Life is hard. It’s supposed to be hard.” The Saboteur makes it harder. Fortunately, I can do hard. I’ve done things I never thought possible and shown myself that I’m capable of so much more than I usually think I am. You’re capable of more than you realize and you can do hard, too.

What are you most proud of yourself for?
Every day I show up for my writing, my self-care commitments (which are currently meditation and working out), my family and friends, in short, every day I show up for my life, I take pride in that day. I am proud of writing and publishing Dancing in the Dragon’s Den, I am proud of being part of my clients’ and students’ successes, I’m proud of the work my partner and I have done to create a loving, committed relationship. But I don’t want to focus on past accomplishments; I want to keep my focus on the present. How am I showing up for my life today?

What strategies did you use to calm your fears and take action?
I use habits, rituals and routines. Routines soothe the limbic brain and make it easier to move into and stay in the creative cortex. Habits remove the need to make a decision. Once I start the ‘Will I or won’t I” discussion in my head, I’m doomed. A habit means I don’t have to decide everyday if I’m going to write or meditate, I just do it six out of seven days. As an added bonus, research shows that an on-going meditation practice makes the limbic brain less reactive. In other words, the more I follow the healthy habits I’m committed to, the easier it is to follow those habits.

I also make public commitments. Part of the reason I teach the Writing Habit class at the Loft semester after semester, year after year, is that while I’m teaching them how to be accountable to themselves, they’re helping me be accountable to myself. I can’t tell students to follow the three practices I recommend unless I’m doing it myself.

You’re a coach, an author, a speaker, a teacher. What have you done to ensure that you don’t get paralyzed with inaction?
Inaction is not a problem. I’m self-employed and I’m always busy. The challenge is making sure I’m taking the right action. That’s where time management techniques, lists, working with my own coach and public commitments come in.

What do you do when none of your smackdowns are working?
Many years ago, I was clinically depressed and needed intervention from a therapist. I think my Saboteur was totally in control at that time. I’ve gone through that and a few other serious ‘dark nights of the soul’ and now I know I’ll never let the Saboteur get so powerful again. I’ve done my emotional and spiritual work. I know I can always do something to curb the Saboteur.

What keeps you motivated?
Hearing that I’m making a difference in someone’s life. My partner, my family, my friends, my dog, Blue. Being passionate. Being outraged at injustice. The glorious oranges and purples of the sun rising every morning and setting every evening. The yellow finches that gather outside my office window every spring. Great books. The thrill of writing and seeing characters and a story come together out of my imagination onto the page.

Is there anything you’d like to add that I haven’t thought to ask?
Every writer, every creative person, experiences resistance of some kind. Sometimes we recognize that as the Inner Critic or the Saboteur. Sometimes we just think we’re too busy. Sometimes we’re afraid we don’t know where to start or how to keep going. Sometimes we wonder if we really can do what we most want to do. What makes or breaks us is not whether we experience resistance (we will!), it’s how we respond to resistance. The important thing is to keep showing up for your writing/creativity, your life, yourself. I help people do that.

Thanksgiving the Sequel

Maybe it’s the shopping, or the Christmas advertising, or the extended time with your family or the traveling, but for whatever reason, does Thanksgiving already feel far away?

Let me take you back a couple of days ago. Remember those minutes or hours or maybe even the whole day when you realized (probably listed!) everything you were thankful for? Remember all the gifts you received this year?

You deserved them.

You deserved them all.

Dedicate a day to celebrating that.

Smackdown Success Story: Kate DiCamillo

If you have kids or just love reading books for young people, then you know who Kate DiCamillo is. Her book Because of Winn-Dixie was a Newbery Honor Book, The Tiger Rising was a National Book Award finalist, and The Tale of Despereaux won the Newbery medal in 2003. Two of her books have made it to the big screen. The Tale of Despereaux opens in theaters December 19. Her latest book is for children is Louise, The Adventures of a Chicken, which came out in September 2008.

I saw you speak at the Loft a few years ago and you told the audience how you were rejected a lot-something like 400 times-before your editor discovered Because of Winn-Dixie in the slush pile at Candlewick Press. How did you smackdown your Inner Critic during that time and keep submitting again and again?

First, a clarification: all those rejections (some 470 or so) were for short stories, not for Winn-Dixie (a book which has led a happily charmed existence). But: how did I deal with all that rejection?  I had a dartboard. I would come home from work, open the mail, take out the most recent rejection letter, affix it to the dartboard, and throw darts at it until I felt better. Then I would take the story, package it up, write a new cover letter and send it out again.

How did you stand up to the pessimism that is so rampant among people who are stuck or not going after their dreams?

I was lucky enough to work with a man who greeted me each morning at the time clock with these words: What’s Plan B, babe?  What are you going to do when the writing doesn’t work out? What’s Plan B? I am deeply grateful to him. Every morning, I was properly enraged, ready to do battle, unwilling to give in, unwilling to give up.

Do you struggle with your Inner Critic?

Yes, but I’ve also learned to rely on my Inner Critic. I *need* that critic to show up for me when I am working on the 3rd draft and the 4th draft and the 5th draft, to help me to be ruthless, to show me what works and what doesn’t.

What kinds of things does your Inner Critic say to you?

Oh, terrible things.  One of its favorite utterances: Who do you think you are?

What is the worst thing it’s ever said to you?

Not printable.

So many people don’t celebrate their success. Have you ever said to yourself, “Damn, I’m good!” and done something special to mark your achievements?

No, I’ve never said that. I have said: I have been blessed. Please let me appreciate all these wonderful gifts that have been given to me. I’ve worked to be happy about what has happened to me.

Has there been a backlash within you to your success?

Sure, when people embrace what you do, you want to keep telling stories that will make them happy. And you can’t write to make anybody happy. It doesn’t work.

What techniques have you used to smackdown your Inner Critic day after day, book after book?

I get up early. The critic sleeps late. So, I go right from the bed to the computer, before that voice that says “no” is fully awake. Also, I keep showing up. The critic can make you lazy and afraid. I try to best it simply by showing up and doing my work, a little bit at a time.

Has your Inner Critic ever been useful?

Yes, profoundly so, in every rewrite I have done.

How do you motivate yourself to finish things?

I set manageable goals and then I stick to them.

Does a successful author like you continue to have fears and doubts that the Inner Critic beats you up with? If so, what are they?

Oh, I worry all the time: What next? What if I can’t?  

Is there a time when you were nervous or fearful and you did whatever it was you were nervous about anyway? How?

I’m nervous and fearful every day. I try to get around that by sitting down and doing the work in spite of the fear and the nerves.

What advice would you give to people who were stuck in inaction because they were afraid to take risks, hear criticism, etc.?

I would say that if this (writing) matters to you, then you are going to have to learn to take risks. It’s part of the job. And you are going to have to learn to listen to other people. That’s the job, too.

What are your favorite sources of inspiration?  

Music.  Books.  Art.  Long walks.  Coffee.  Dogs.  Friends.  Laughter.

What did you think the first time you saw your work on film?

I thought: the world is a strange and miraculous place and I am glad to be here.

Smackdown Success Story: Pete Hautman

Pete Hautman is a full-time novelist. His book Godless won the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature in 2004. And if you loved that book (I did! I did!) then you can check out the twenty other books (and counting) he has out now. Both my husband and stepson read and praised Rash for days. That’s the next book on my list.

 I had a conversation with a man the other day who claimed that men don’t have Inner Critics, only women do. What do you think about that?

I think that man is not listening.

Do you have an Inner Critic?

His name is Alan.

What kinds of things does your Inner Critic say to you?

He thinks I should abandon the concept of metaphor and get on with the story.

What is the worst thing it’s ever said to you?

You suck.  Your father would hate this.  Your mother would be ashamed.  You are irrelevant.  Everyone will be glad when you die.  You smell weird. 

After you won the National Book Award did you experience any backlash when you showed up at the desk because you won such a prestigious award? Was it easier or harder to start the next project?

What desk?  My desk?  No, it made no difference in my writing.  Nobody other than Philip Roth wins the National Book Award twice; I’ve had my moment.  As for going forward, I had several books in the works already, and a host of ideas on deck (sports metaphor-it’s a guy thing) and hey, if I don’t write I don’t eat.  I’m now writing books I knew I was going to write years ago. 

What techniques have you used to smackdown your Inner Critic day after day, book after book?

Alan is a wimp.  I give him a look and he folds.  Hah.  Take that, Alan.  What?  What do you mean?  Really?  I do not!  Leave me alone.  I’m going to get drunk now. 

If your Inner Critic was a character, what would it be?

This really intolerant and tasteless guy named Alan who has NO FREAKING IDEA what it takes to write a book.

Has your Inner Critic ever been useful?

Well, he kept me from submitting work to publishers until I was 38 years old.  I guess that prevented a lot of breathtakingly awful prose from wasting some poor editor’s precious time.

How do you motivate yourself to finish things?

Hubris, shame, and outstanding bills.

Does a successful author like you continue to have fears and doubts that the Inner Critic beats you up with? If so, what are they?

What is it with you and Alan?  Did he do something terrible to you when you were a child?

If you don’t have a problem with the Inner Critic when it comes to writing, are there other areas of your life it shows up?

It?  Meaning Alan, or writing?  Okay, I cannot bear to dance, or sing, in public.

Is there a time when you were nervous or fearful and you did whatever it was you were nervous about anyway?

Yes. 

How?

I closed my eyes and did it.  There’s not much more to it than that.  Close your eyes really tight.  It helps.

What advice would you give to people who were stuck in inaction because they were afraid to take risks, hear criticism, etc.?

If you can’t handle criticism and rejection, and you still want to be in an artist, prepare yourself to be miserable.  Or give yourself a break and get a real job.

What are your favorite sources of inspiration?

Memories, Nature, News.  In that order. 

Is there anything else you’d like to add?  

Alan, I’m sorry!=

Smackdown Success Story: David Alan Basche

David Alan Basche (www.DavidAlanBasche.com) is starring as Debra Messing’s ex-husband Kenny on the hit TV show The Starter Wife on USA Network, Fridays at 10pm. He is also playing the recurring character of Mike Harness on Lipstick Jungle, and he appeared in the movies United 93 and The War of the Worlds. He is expecting his first child with his wife, Alysia Reiner.

1) When did your Inner Critic first rear its ugly head?
Oh this is a good one, it was at age 6 and it was absolutely horrible. My Father had just died of a sudden, massive heart attack. And I kid you not, a little voice inside my head said “If you had been a better little boy, God would not have had to take your Father.” Oh yes my Inner Critic made quite an entrance, and yes it DID say that. No shit, it really did, the bastard.

2) What’s the worst part of having an Inner Critic, or what’s the worst thing it’s ever said to you?
See above, but even after that, I mean, come on, what HASN’T my inner critic said to me? “You’re so far behind, you’ll never get what you want, it’s too late to reach those levels, too late to make those dreams come true, just give up you piece of shit!” I mean, it will basically stop at nothing to tear me down. And the worst part is that I always think I’m over it. It’s like “Groudhog Day” plays over and over in my subconscious, dammitt! When will my critic be gone? When will I learn how to ignore it perfectly? Um, never…but I keep trying!

3) What have you been able to achieve by smacking down your Inner Critic?
Most importantly, I’ve been able to achieve a life that’s less full of fear, a state of being that’s more present, and an existence that’s freer and lighter and more positive in all ways. And certainly the repeated smackdowns of my Inner Critic have contributed to my career success in a huge way. I deal with a LOT of rejection on a daily basis in my career, and I think learning to smackdown the critic has helped me not take that rejection so personally and therefore made me confident in critical high pressure situations like screen tests, etc.

4) What’s your all-time favorite smackdown?
I say to my inner critic “Excuse me, who the F*&# asked you?” and then try to do a silly little dance while giving my critic the finger. No seriously, I do.

5) What do you do when none of your smackdowns are working?
I Leave… No, really, sometimes just a change of scenery works when nothing else will. A walk on a noisy city street makes it hard to hear my inner critic! And if all else fails, there’s always South Park – watching something insanely funny helps me to not take my self-imposed misery so seriously.

6) Over time, does it get easier to smackdown the Critic? What keeps you motivated?
Practice makes never perfect but certainly easier when it comes to our inner critics. Once you face down an inner critic and win, you always have that victory to recall and feed off for the next battle. Over time it becomes habit to NOT listen to the mean voice in your head!

7) Acting is one of the toughest careers you can have. How do you handle the Outer Critics?
First, never read reviews if you are still working on a piece! In the theatre, even a good review can screw you up onstage the next night. And it’s good to remember the old phrase: “Opinions are like assholes: everybody’s got one.”

Are you scared of raising a kid? If so, how do you smackdown that fear?
Scared? No, I’m TERRIFIED! What responsibility! But I keep telling myself “Just listen to your gut, you’ll be a great Dad, you know you have this in you, you know how to love and nurture and protect and teach, just go with the flow.” Also, bourbon helps a lot.

9) What are your favorite sources of inspiration?
My wife is my single most important inspiration, spiritually and otherwise. Art, books, music, dance, film, really ALL the other arts contribute to my acting inspiration too of course.

10) What advice would you give to someone who was stuck in fear and inaction?
Tell yourself “Get up, get going, DO something!” and then once you start, whatever was scaring you doesn’t seem so bad! The anticipation is worse than the thing itself. I repeat to myself: “Whatever happens, I’ll handle it…”

Smackdown Success Story: Alysia Reiner

Alysia Reiner (www.alysiareiner.com) plays the recurring role of Cindy on The Starter Wife on USA. Her latest film is The Vicious Kind, produced by Neil LaBute, and she won a Screen Actors Guild Award for her role as Christine in Sideways. She is also expecting her first child with husband David Alan Basche.  

When did your Inner Critic first rear its ugly head?

Been there as long as I can remember.

What’s the worst part of having an Inner Critic, or what’s the worst thing it’s ever said to you?

That it never goes away – you just learn to deal with it.

What have you been able to achieve by smacking down your Inner Critic?  

Not just achieving goals but living a life with more joy and peace.

What’s your all-time favorite smackdown?

Thank you for sharing, now shut the f@%& up.  

What do you do when none of your smackdowns are working?   

Call and email friends to help me whip um into shape, put on great music & dance it away, go to kickboxing class

Over time, does it get easier to smackdown the Critic?

Absolutely – it’s a muscle, ya gotta work it.

What keeps you motivated?

I wanna live my dreams, be happy and at peace – the more I do the less the Critic talks.

Acting is one of the toughest careers you can have. How do you handle the Outer Critics?

Don’t read reviews while you are working on something. Period.

Are you scared of raising a kid? If so, how do you smackdown that fear?  

It’s a mix of educating myself, choosing what to use (i.e., choosing supportive, not fear-based, books, videos, classes), and listening to my intuition and heart more than ever.

What are your favorite sources of inspiration?

SO MANY! Nature, music, meditation, yoga, love, art, notes from the Universe, my friends & family, sex, laughter, being of service.

What advice would you give to someone who was stuck in fear and inaction?

Go do something! Get your ass out of bed or out of the house and:

Volunteer somewhere

Go to a museum

Make a list of goals, start with tiny ones

& take one action today – just one.

Recruit a friend to be action buddies

Anything else you’d like to add that I haven’t asked?

Action and Smackdown with faith/hope/belief in yourself are muscles – ya gotta work um. And sometimes they get sore when you first learn to use um or are getting stronger… Work through the pain. Pain is weakness leaving the body. And damn it feels good to be strong, believe in yourself and live the life of your dreams!!

Smackdown Success Story: Maria Schneider

Maria Schneider is the former editor of Writer’s Digest magazine. She recently left her job and started a new website for writers: http://editorunleashed.com. We talked with Maria to find out how she smacked down her Inner Critic and went after her dreams.

First, do you have an active Inner Critic?

Yes, I have a very pesky Inner Critic. I’m an editor after all.

I think every writer needs an Inner Critic; it’s necessary because you have to edit your work to make it publishable. It’s a detriment to be unable to take a critical eye to your own writing.

That said, it’s important to make sure your Inner Critic is in her place-and when you’re writing, that place is the time-out room.

You recently decided to leave your job as editor of Writer’s Digest in a time of economic turmoil. How did you overcome your fears of making the leap?

It might seem like an impetuous move, but I trust my instincts and my instincts were screaming at me: it’s time to move on. There was a corporate restructuring, and it became clear to me that I wasn’t going to be driving the editorial vision of the magazine any more; that it was going to become more of a marketing vehicle. That’s a corporate decision that I understand; these are tough times for publishers. But it just wasn’t a place I wanted to be any longer. In publishing, you have to align yourself with people who share your vision; otherwise, it just doesn’t work. I’m taking on freelance writing and editing jobs now to shore up my family’s finances, but yes, it is scary not to have the regular income a full-time job provides.

What are you doing now and what’s your vision for the site?

I realized the things I most loved about being the editor of Writer’s Digest-writing my blog, doing interviews, writing articles and interacting on our forum-I could do all of those things on my own by setting up my own website. As much as I love print, I think I really thrive in an online environment; I like the conversation.

My vision for the site is still emerging. I knew I wanted to start off with a blog and a writers’ forum and those are both up and running nicely just two weeks into it.

I want the site to grow into a community destination for both writers and readers. I think it’s really difficult for writers to get solid, trustworthy information online and I want to provide that for them.

I’m doing the majority of the writing for the blog now, but I will be bringing more voices into the mix through guest posts and interviews. The blog and forum will be filled with resources like creativity starters, essays and articles on writing and publishing, and critique forums for peer reviews. I’ll also be offering premium workshop forums in a few months for writers who want more intensive workshopping with an editor.

I would like to eventually start an online journal and publish some of the work that’s been workshopped on the forum. And I have a long-term dream of starting up my own little publishing house if I see the opportunity.

Right now, though, I’m focused on connecting with and growing my community of writers and readers. I believe that my business model will emerge from that. Being connected to this community of writers and readers will show me what they want and need.

What strategies did you use to calm your fears and take action?

It’s incredibly important-as a writer or anyone with creative aspirations-to seek out and align yourself with people who will support and nurture you, whether that’s an MFA program or a local workshop at your library, or an online forum like mine. A big part of the reason I started the forum, really, is that I like the conversation with other writers. I’ve seen first-hand how being involved in a good writing community can empower you. Sure, you need plenty of alone time as a writer or an artist, but the worst thing you can do is isolate yourself.

Over time, does it get easier to smackdown the Critic?

I think so. Actually, blogging has really been helpful for me in overcoming my Inner Critic. If you really commit to blogging, you need to post every day, and there’s nothing like writing every day to get you over your nagging Inner Critic. I don’t think you ever truly get over being self-critical, though. As I said, you need to be able to put a critical eye to your own work, but it’s best saved for the editing process.

What have you done to ensure that you don’t get paralyzed with inaction as you build your new life?

My creativity is really driving me at this point in my life. I almost feel as if there isn’t enough time in the day to put all of my ideas into fruition. I think that’s when you know you’re moving in the right path, you feel compelled to do something and the ideas for making it bigger and better just never seem to stop.

What do you do when none of your smackdowns are working?

Doing really mundane, routine tasks like folding laundry, loading the dishwasher, sweeping, for some reason those things really help me out when I’m creatively stuck. And the bonus, of course, is your house gets a bit cleaner.

What keeps you motivated?

My curiosity, my ideas, my sincere interest in other people, and my desire to provide an educational, inspiring and nurturing online home for writers.

What are your favorite sources of inspiration?

Music (roots, jazz and bluegrass), photographs, coffee (the taste, the smell, the caffeine!); interacting with other writers.   

What advice would you give someone who wanted to start their own venture?

It would be irresponsible of me to recommend leaving your job to start your own venture. But I know that I wouldn’t have gotten my own goals moving if I were still working full-time. Working that much just sucks up your creative energy.

If you have a book you want to write or some other venture you want to pursue, just start a dedicated notebook and write down the ideas when they come to you-a picture will start to emerge. After you have some solid ideas in place, take a week’s vacation from work to start implementing some of your plans.

I think if you find yourself drawn to working on that project every day, all day long for a week or more, that book or project is probably going to have legs for you. It has to be something you’re really drawn toward; something you’d do, at least for a little while, without pay. That being said, it’s important to generate ideas for how your project could become profitable for you in the future. You do have to give some thought to a business model, although I think it really needs to be your creativity and vision driving you.

What advice would you give to someone who was stuck in fear and inaction?

Keeping an idea notebook really has helped me. I’m always jotting down ideas. I think it should be really free form at first, just to start getting your ideas down, but you’ll find yourself being drawn more into the concrete details of a project as you keep brainstorming.

Is there some idea you’ve had at your workplace that you couldn’t push through because of corporate bureaucracy? Is there a book you’ve always wanted to read but couldn’t find in the bookstores? Write these things down in a notebook and start jotting down random thoughts that address that problem with a solution that you could build a book or business or platform around. Think big, but start small.

Smackdown Success Story: Stephanie Watson

Stephanie Watson is the author of Elvis & Olive, a children’s book that was published by Scholastic in April 2008. She knows plenty about smacking down her inner critic. And she does a helluva job at it, too. Besides her first novel, she has two more books she’s working on and a busy career as a freelance writer. Here she talks to us about her strategies for smacking down The Heavyweight.

Do you have an active inner critic?

Who doesn’t? Mine works over time. Really diligent. A very hard worker.

When things are going well the critic likes to say things like, “This won’t last,” or “You’ll be discovered soon.” And when it’s difficult and the writing is not coming as easy as I like it to, then the critic says, “See what did we tell you before?” So yeah, it’s something that will always be with me and I feel will always be a companion but it’s about finding a way to trick the critic or somehow leave him behind. There are all kinds of things that do seem to work. I like trying a bunch of different things. No one thing works forever. It seems like the critic gets wise to your strategies. So trying a lot of different things can work well.

I really love reading books. I don’t know if you’d call them writers’ self-help books, but they are for writers, like The Courage to Write by Ralph Keyes and The Writers Book of Hope. Mostly they are filled with stories of how other writers or artists of any kind have struggled. There’s something about reading about other people’s journey through fear that gives me courage. If I hear that some of my favorite writers are battling the same demons, it makes it seem possible to get over that somehow or at least to temporarily escape the critic in order to be able to write something.

I think if you keep moving that helps. There was a big critique of this new book I’m working on and it really flattened me for a week. And I felt like if I can start moving again it will be okay. Even if the writing is difficult or not coming easy there is something about getting back into motion that seems to help a lot. The critic seems to be a slow moving beast. So if you can run fast enough… That’s something I am doing right now. I am waiting for feedback on this piece, and I decided I’m going to do this crazy thing. I’m going to write a picture-book manuscript every day for two weeks, just to be totally reckless, and like I don’t care! They can be garbage, I don’t care. Because I feel like if I stop there is too much silence and I start hearing the critic’s voice: “You suck.” It’s a lot of fun to write a picture book every day and it does seem to quiet that voice. And also at the end of two weeks hopefully I will hear back by then. If not at least I will have escaped two weeks of worrying, and I might have at least a couple of workable manuscripts that I can edit into something I can sell. Out of fourteen manuscripts there’s got to be something good. That’s a new trick.

It’s like the national novel writing month, It’s the same principle. Just run like hell, and the critic can’t keep up.

Has your inner critic kept you from doing something before?

Yeah, I think so. I think that’s what keeps me going. It’s more scary to think that I might miss an opportunity. I don’t want to ever look back and say I think, “I should have done that.” When I was in college, I was in a comedy improv group. I don’t think I knew enough to be scared about it. It was something I fell into. It was only later that I was realized that was a really scary thing to do. A few years ago I was thinking back on that and I asked myself, could I do that now? And the idea that I would not do it now because it was scary made me feel like now I have to do it. So now I’m in a comedy improv group. It’s terrifying. We perform on Tuesdays at the Brave New Workshop. It’s so scary. Every Tuesday I’m like why am I doing this? But I just want to do those things that scare me so I don’t feel bad about not having done them.

You feel very alive when you do something that makes you feel afraid. In this book I read it talks about the gifts of fear. Fear makes you very alert and anxiety makes your mind very sharp. So you approach something you’re afraid of with anxiety, but it makes you act quickly and be clever in a way that maybe you couldn’t be if you were super relaxed about it. I like that idea that maybe being afraid is not only okay but maybe you want to be a little afraid so that ultimately you do a better job and give it more concentration. That’s another thing that helps the critic. “Yeah, I’m afraid. So?” That’s what I say to myself when I’m about to go on stage with the comedy improv. “Yeah, my hands are shaking. So?” It’s uncomfortable and my inclination is to run out the door, but I’ll just stay here and be here with that fear and do it anyway. And then it ends up not mattering that I was afraid. The same holds true for writing.