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I am quite fond of the craft of writing. It is a skill that happens to have a lot of intricacies that are worthy of exploration. You can expect in the future a lot of these articles on the craft of writing. I hope you enjoy them.

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Something that has always bugged me as a writer is shutting up that inner editor. You know the one. Always shouting at you about this or that, prompting you to pause and think and revise before you have even scratched the surface of your story. This knave is the bane of productive writing. Editing before you have the first draft to edit can also endanger your product as a whole.

The Inner Editor does not care that you are just trying to get things started. The Inner Editor does not care that you are at your most vulnerable. The Inner Editor just wants to feel the satisfaction of you going back and fixing the problems it spots. If it stops you from writing completely, so much the better. You aren't good enough yet, The Inner Editor tells you. You need practice.

I know that every time my fingers touch the keys I begin a fencing match with my Inner Editor. It is a relentless and formidable opponent. As if to prove my point, in the previous sentence I paused and rewrote when I decided it was not good enough. The Inner Editor won that point. Touche. On to the next sentence, return to positions and En Garde once more. Parry, parry, thrust, thrust.

There are a lot of interpretations one could have on why the Inner Editor exists. It can be a manifestation of our anxieties - what if it's not good enough? What if I'M not good enough?. It can be a manifestation of perfectionism - everything has to be perfect. It can be a manifestation of indecision - Is there a better way I can write this?

Regardless of its source, the Inner Editor is a ghoul. It feasts on our energy and the energy of the work that we try to produce. It craves that sense of victory when the writer stops, reconsiders, changes course. It will take the life out of you if it can.

I myself have seen friends - good friends, friends with talent and skill alike - stop writing completely. They become so demoralized by perceived fault and failure that they cannot continue. They lost one too many fights to that insidious creature.

There has to be a way to help suppress and beat this monster back. And there are - tools and techniques that you can use to gird yourself against it. I hope to list a few for you below.

1. "Don't look it in the eyes!"

Perhaps one of the most simplistic techniques I've found to battle back the Editor is to not look at the work you are producing. Look at the keyboard. Focus on the words as they appear in your mind and put them down. Trust in the magic box in front of you to create the letters (or some approximation) that you need. What this does is prevents you from looking over the sentence as it appears, or scanning your eyes back unless necessary. If you aren't reading your draft until the end you can't exactly know what to change or fix. Note that this works best for first drafts - I would not recommend revising using this technique.

1. Ditch the tech.

Our typical word processors - Docs, Office, whatever you like writing with - are great for the final copy. They can format everything to your liking, you have access to spell checkers, and there are so many neat toys! Yet, some of that flexibility can become the enemy to producing your first raw draft. So ditch it.

You have a few great options here. The first and easiest, no doubt, is to step away from the computer completely. Get a notepad and a pen and write old-school. Write out your draft long form and then input it into your word processor later. Of course, your pen can still scratch words out and make corrections. You must make sure you are not replacing one vice with another.

If you still prefer the touch of digital there is software available that can force you to ignore that niggling voice in your head.

Momentum Writer (http://www.blackobelisksoftware.com/momentumwriter...) is a free application that disables your backspace and movement keys. In essence, it makes you work on a digital typewriter. Once you have finished for the day you can copy and paste the work into your preferred word processor. Bonus: It has typewriter clacking and dinging sounds built in. Mmm, Authentic!

1. Plan ahead

This one can be an issue for people who prefer to write organic. I myself love and swear by the outlining method of writing everything that crosses my task list. There is something about knowing what goes where before you begin that makes the work ahead so much easier. It also serves to shut the Editor up to a certain extent. Instead of fighting every word you put down you can force the Editor to work for you. When you have targets to meet in your work your Editor can focus on more practical questions. "Am I accomplishing the task according to my outline?" "Is this particular scene working the way I need it to for the story?" You may find that having a specific aim with each task will have your Editor quiet down a little.

I happen to be a big fan of numbers 1 and 3, especially 3. Structured writing is a technique I will drill into my readers. Maybe I can change your mind on it.

What are some techniques you use to combat your Inner Editor? You should let us know in the comments!

Keep Writing!

-Lily,

Scratchpost Press