I think my distraction issues are more confidence related right now, I'm going to clear the decks and give this a go though and see if I can get to the root of why I'm wobbling now! The doubt comes and goes but it's pretty noisy right now.
I am sorry to hear that your writing confidence is low - that sucks.
Before you dive into this exercise (or perhaps alongside it) I wonder whether you'd benefit from keeping a distraction diary for a few days? As your inner critic pipes up, make a quick note of what they are saying, then return to the writing. Often this has the benefit of calming down the mind so you can write a bit more.
After a few days review what negative messages you have noted down. You should be able to spot patterns and you can use the most common as the prompts for the solutions exercise. Also I find that inner critics on the whole are quite limited and lacking imagination - they tend to repeat the same things so once you've heard them you can come up with scripts and actions to deal with them. I hope it helps calm down the noise.
Thank you, and yes you're right. The inner critic is definitely lacking imagination which is why I'm a bit annoyed it's popped up! I like the idea of a distraction diary, I'l give that a go. I stepped away from a writing client before holiday which was a conscious decision on my part to open up space for more / different writing and creative endeavours but typically that means more space to (over) think. The inner critic has been silenced a lot so far this year because I've been head down doing client writing and now it has some space to play. Thank you!
I think my distraction issues are more confidence related right now, I'm going to clear the decks and give this a go though and see if I can get to the root of why I'm wobbling now! The doubt comes and goes but it's pretty noisy right now.
I am sorry to hear that your writing confidence is low - that sucks.
Before you dive into this exercise (or perhaps alongside it) I wonder whether you'd benefit from keeping a distraction diary for a few days? As your inner critic pipes up, make a quick note of what they are saying, then return to the writing. Often this has the benefit of calming down the mind so you can write a bit more.
After a few days review what negative messages you have noted down. You should be able to spot patterns and you can use the most common as the prompts for the solutions exercise. Also I find that inner critics on the whole are quite limited and lacking imagination - they tend to repeat the same things so once you've heard them you can come up with scripts and actions to deal with them. I hope it helps calm down the noise.
Thank you, and yes you're right. The inner critic is definitely lacking imagination which is why I'm a bit annoyed it's popped up! I like the idea of a distraction diary, I'l give that a go. I stepped away from a writing client before holiday which was a conscious decision on my part to open up space for more / different writing and creative endeavours but typically that means more space to (over) think. The inner critic has been silenced a lot so far this year because I've been head down doing client writing and now it has some space to play. Thank you!