Jail the Negative Voice

By Debby Giusti

We’re living in unusual times to say the least, and there are many distractions that can disrupt our writing time, steal our creativity and hold us back from following our dreams. If your productivity is down and you’re struggling to write, the pandemic could be to blame, but something else might play a role as well.

Do you know about the Negative Voice?

This mixed-up time is the perfect environment for the Negative Voice to surface. He’s a stealthy guy who hides out in the back of our minds. Silent for long periods of time when we’re going about our daily routines, he’ll make himself known the instant we find time to write.

Spewing verbal abuse, the Negative Voice attempts to convince us we can’t write or can’t write a story that sells or a story readers will like or the next story or a different type of story or ….

You get the idea.

Although rejection and sorry-it’s-not-working-for-me are part and parcel of this business, the last thing a writer needs is extra criticism, especially in the time of Corona. The stress of living through a pandemic is hard enough. We shouldn’t heap more disapproval upon our shoulders and certainly not from a self-generated source that knows where we’re most vulnerable.

“Who do you think YOU are?” the Negative Voice asks.  “You got a ‘C’ in sophomore English.”  “You’re only a housewife.”  “You never went to college.”  “You can’t spell.”  “You’ve got a full-time job and three kids to raise, and you don’t have time for some foolish pie-in-the-sky dream about seeing your name in print.”  “You’ve been rejected 35 times. Get a life!” “You’ll always be a midlist author.” “You can’t switch publishers or agents or genres.” “You’ll never sell another story.”

Before I sold my first book… before I wrote my first book…before I even knew I could write a first book, I was aware of my Negative Voice. 

I started writing short, slice of life vignettes when my children were young.  We lived in rural Missouri where long, snow-bound winters provided ample opportunity to take pen to paper.  I published a few pieces, including “Sisterhood,” a short tribute to Army wives. (Just a side note: "Sisterhood" still circulates throughout the military community, was performed to musical accompaniment at the White House and has been republished in a number of military publications, including 1001 Things To Love About Military Life, a Hachette Book Group release.)

After making those first few sales back in Missouri, I thought my publishing life was ready to skyrocket. Then we moved.  Kids went to school, schools needed volunteers and I raised my hand.  Granted, I wanted to help, but I also wanted to write. 

The Negative Voice kept selling me a line of goods about how I needed to do “normal” things, like be a room mom, coordinate the wives’ club luncheons, be program chair for my ladies’ group at church, all important jobs that I enjoyed doing.  I was making a contribution, but I wasn’t making room in my life for my own dream. 

The few times I attempted to scratch out a story, the Negative Voice quickly critiqued my rough drafts.  “Ha, ha, ha,” he laughed.  “Who are you kidding? Why start something you can’t finish, and you’ll never succeed as a writer.  Stick with all the other volunteer jobs you’re currently doing.”

The Negative Voice also told me I was too busy to write.  “You’ll have time to write later in life,” he promised.  So, with that carrot held over my head, I closed the door on what might have been. 

Don’t get me wrong. I had a wonderful life. I traveled the globe with my military husband, ran women’s organizations, worked on quality of life issues within the military community, organized and led church ministries, helped in my kids’ schools and raised my family.  But my desire to write—to write fiction—continued to tug at my heart. 

To be perfectly honest, I wouldn’t have traded those years or what I accomplished for any amount of publishing success, but I wish I had fueled my spark of writing creativity in a productive way during all that time.  

Things changed when we moved to Georgia.  Perhaps it was the grits that gave me the courage to finally start on my journey to publication. Yet even then, I struggled to still the Negative Voice and his incessant buts. “You won one writing contest, but it was a fluke.”  “You submitted to an agent, but she won’t like the story.” “Your first three chapters work, but the middle doesn’t.”  “You’re getting close, but you’ll never sell.” 

As luck (think God!) would have it, I stumbled upon THE ARTIST’S WAY, by Julia Cameron.  Working through the book helped me identify the Negative Voice and override his destructive influence.  Two effective strategies for me were Morning Pages and Affirmations. 

Morning pages – write three pages of free flowing, steam of consciousness every morning, shortly after rising.  Don’t critique or rewrite, just jot down the thoughts and baggage and struggles that stand in the way of your creativity.  Sounds silly, doesn’t it?  But Morning Pages work.  Give them a try for a few weeks and see if you don’t notice a difference.

Affirmations – Whenever you hear an internal negative, flip it into a positive, and write it ten times.  “You can’t write,” the Negative Voice whispers.  Counter that inner pessimism by scribbling the positive affirmation: I am a writer! I am a writer!  I am a writer! I am a writer!  I am a writer! I am a writer!  I am a writer!  I am a good writer!  I am a productive writer!  I am a successful writer! 

Using Cameron’s ideas, I soon realized the only one holding me back from my dream was me. I set aside time each day to write.  I joined a committed critique group that met weekly. I stopped thinking of writing as something that took me away from my husband and children and regarded it as a necessary part of life that made me a more joyous and vibrant member of the family.

Bottom line, I pushed, I worked hard, I finally sold. You can too.

I didn’t entitle this blog, “Kill the Negative Voice,” because he can’t be silenced. At any time, he’s apt to raise his ugly head, but his maliciousness can be transformed into an affirmation.  When we recognize his tomfoolery for what it is, we can capture the slimy varmint and send him to jail.  Will he escape?  Eventually, but knowing he has lots of tricks up his sleeve is half the battle.  The other half is believing we can succeed.

Can you recognize your own Negative Voice?  If so, how do you overcome the way he tries to hold back your creativity?  What strategies do you use to turn negatives into positives?  What keeps you from realizing your dream?  What is your dream, and how are you working to make sure it comes true…even during a pandemic?

Leave a comment to be entered in a drawing for a copy of my Publishers Weekly Bestseller, DANGEROUS AMISH INHERITANCE, digital or print, and a digital copy of Julia Cameron’s THE ARTIST’S WAY.

Happy writing!

Wishing you abundant blessing,

Debby Giusti

www.DebbyGiusti.com

Dangerous Amish Inheritance

By Debby Giusti

“Move off the mountain. No one wants you here.”

Can this Amish widow survive her dangerous stalker?

Someone wants Ruthie Eicher off Amish Mountain…enough to terrorize the widow and her boys. Now Ruthie must rely on her former sweetheart, Noah Schlabach—the secret father of her eldest son—as they figure out why. But Noah has turned his back on love and the Amish way of life. Can he shield Ruthie…without breaking her heart again?

Order HERE!

“Jail the Negative Voice” was first published in Seekerville on Oct 19, 2011.