When we create we need to open all our doors and windows, look over fences and under rocks for our ideas and inspirations. We have to get our hands dirty. We have to be open and willing to look foolish or be wrong.

Creating, by its very definition is unusual and must occur “off the beaten path.”

We can’t be worried about stepping on the grass or looking silly in front of the neighbors.

In other words, you can’t create and critique at the same time.

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Forgetting to separate critiquing from creating is where I often get into to trouble when I’m starting things.

I forget to tell my inner critic to “take five” and just develop my ideas. To create and then critique.

Take writing this (or any other) blog post for example.

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First I get the seed of the idea and then I have to dump all my thoughts about it onto the page.

Yes, all of them. The dumb ones, the obvious ones, the muddled and unclear ones. Even the contradictory ones. All of them.

If I start evaluating the thoughts as I write them, I almost always wind up saying something other than what I really mean. I get tied up in the grammar or how to order my ideas and I fail to get to the heart of the matter.

And, I find it’s the truest thoughts that get axed first.

Why?

Because the truth can sound like a cliche or seem too obvious to mention.

Because saying our truth makes us vulnerable.

People might know what we really think. And they might disagree with it.

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So to write a successful post, I have to write down everything I have to say on the subject (the good, the bad and the ugly), and then – and only then! – can I go back and start editing.

(Don’t be fooled, editing is just another name for critiquing.)

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Now, in spontaneous singing (improvisation) it may appear that these processes of creating and critiquing happen simultaneously. I argue that they are still separate; you just switch (rapidly) back and forth between the two.

You have an idea and develop it (creating).

Then you check in to see if the idea is succeeding (critiquing).

Once you’ve evaluated what you’re doing, you must switch back to creating to come up with the next idea. When we try to critique as we create, we cripple ourselves.

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I experience it as having a separate office (with a door that closes *grin*) for my inner critic. She must be on site — she serves an important function — but she can’t always be in my space. If she raises her hand to object every time I have an idea, we will get nowhere. But if I permit her to share her opinion when I ask her for it, she helps me decide if I am making music or just making noise.

(Then she gets to take a coffee break while I go back to the work of creating. *smile*)

More Bloggity Goodness

• Working with the Broken Pieces