Challenge Yourself to Cage Your Inner Editor

Summary

The article challenges writers to complete their first draft without editing, personifying the inner critic as "Blythe" and suggesting visualization techniques to keep her at bay until the draft is finished.

Abstract

The "31-Day Ninja Writer Challenge 2019: Day Five" article emphasizes the importance of completing a first draft without succumbing to the temptation to edit prematurely. The author, Shaunta Grimes, shares her struggle with her inner editor, Blythe, who constantly urges her to prioritize editing over drafting. Grimes advocates for visualizing and metaphorically caging this inner critic to maintain focus on writing forward. She encourages writers to describe their own inner editors and the imaginative prisons they create for them in their notebooks, and to share these visualizations in a Facebook group for mutual support. The article also reminds participants to continue daily reading and writing practices and directs them to additional resources for the writing challenge.

Opinions

The author views the rule of not editing until the first draft is complete as essential for productive writing.
Grimes believes that the inner editor, personified as Blythe, hinders the writing process by overemphasizing the importance of editing.
She suggests that spending too much time editing during the drafting phase is a common pitfall for writers, distracting them from the primary goal of advancing the story.
The article conveys the opinion that visualization techniques, such as imagining the inner editor in a cage, are effective tools for maintaining discipline and focus on writing.
Grimes implies that writers should embrace imperfection in their first drafts, allowing them to create something that can be improved upon later.
The author encourages community engagement and support through social media as a means to reinforce the discipline of completing a first draft without editing.

31-Day Ninja Writer Challenge 2019: Day Five

I’m a rebel at heart. Rules just don’t sit well with me, usually. In fact, when it comes to writing, I really only have one. Today’s challenge is all about that one rule.

No editing until the first draft is done.

Seems simple enough, but it’s a tough rule, because I have this lady who lives in my head. She’s my inner editor and she’s got serious control problems.

Blythe and my brain are in cahoots. Just as I get to the second Act of whatever I’m writing at any given time, my writer’s brain starts throwing up any excuse it can think of to get me out of the hard work of writing.

And then Blythe pipes up and insists that editing is writing.

In fact, editing is more important than writing.

It makes perfect sense to spend all my writing time making the paragraph I wrote yesterday as perfect as possible.

When really, really, really the only thing that counts when I’m in drafting mode is writing. That means moving the story forward. And that means no editing until the first draft is done.

So, here’s what you have to do.

Visualize your very own Blythe, and when she butts in and tries to bully you into starting to edit before your first draft is done, visualize her right into some kind of cave. Or hole. Or locked box.

Or, like me, put her in a bird cage. A fancy, old-fashioned one, with a velvet cover.

Let her back out when you actually need to edit. After the first draft is done.

See all the posts in this series, here.

ASSIGNMENT FIVE:

Get out your notebook and write out your visualization about your inner editor. Describe her (or him. Or it.) Describe the cage or cave or pit you’re going to lock her up in. I know it sounds weird, but I swear it works.

Don’t forget to read and write for ten minutes each today.

You can find all of the posts in this challenge here:

Shaunta Grimes is a writer and teacher. She is an out-of-place Nevadan living in Northwestern PA with her husband, three superstar kids, two dementia patients, a good friend, Alfred the cat, and a yellow rescue dog named Maybelline Scout. Her newest novel is The Astonishing Maybe, published in March 2019 by Feiwel and Friends. She’s on Twitter @shauntagrimes and is the original Ninja Writer.

Challenge Yourself to Cage Your Inner Editor

31-Day Ninja Writer Challenge 2019: Day Five

Why Writers Need to be Imperfect

Put your inner editor in her place so you create something you can improve on.

So, here’s what you have to do.

31 Days of Ninja Writing Challenges: 2019

Spend the next month kicking ass!