"Who is the judge that sits perpetually in your head? Write those lines, you silly fool, they are all yours, both the good and the bad, and no one exists in purity and essence. Write the bad lines if only to keep writing... Writing is longely, wretched, unheralded, often meaningless, insignificant, and too often devoid of even a masturbatory pleasure, mean though that is. Write, Martha, and stop crying at the cold. You've wept long enough." - Robert Presnell to Martha Gellhorn, 1953

Emma

Martha Gellhorn is one of my heroines. what an amazing writer and an amazing woman.
One of my favourite books is Travels with Myself and Another.

who is the critic in my head?
I hate to say it but it's all the agents and publishers and pundits who say do this do that. I think they bother me the most. The ones who are likely to say things like:
she left all the adverbs in.
Or
She keeps telling not showing.
Or
These sentences need to be short and punchy.
Or
There's too much dialogue and not enough description.
Or
Jump me into action in the first sentence of the story.

My head whirls with advice which I have foolishly gobbled up and now can't get rid of.

Perhaps it's my age but I've now learnt to apply the same pick'n'mix attitude to critics (after tasting) as I do to that on the merits or otherwise of drinking red wine. That said (and without any intention of flattery!) I have to say Emma D's advice is invariably apt and always carefully considered.

As an art student I was told to keep going until the last finger-wagging critic has left the room, then I know I'm in control. More rules perhaps with writing, but the principle is similar.

My head whirls with advice which I have foolishly gobbled up and now can't get rid of.

The Inner Critic uses that kind of advice (which usually has some kind of usefulness and truth inside it) as a disguise, when it dresses up as your Inner Editor, your Inner Agent or your Inner Reviewer:

http://emmadarwin.typepad.com/thisitchofwriting/2009/10/the-inner-critics-dressingup-box.html

I spend a lot of my blogging time refuting dogmas like "show don't tell" and "short sentences are more punchy", not to mention the stupidity of regarding "description" as a whole class of writing... Those posts are mostly in Resources.

And thank for those kind words, Sandra.

Emma the posts on your site do indeed deal with all those things really well. And it's helped me quell the inner critic in my head or certainly given me another angle to look at things from.

It's all insecurity that makes us latch on to something at any given moment and prevents us from writing.

I read that as the judge who shits perpetually in your head. I think there's something wrong with me.

I read that as the judge who shits perpetually in your head.

LoL EmmaH!

I'm trying to construct a joke concerning shitty first drafts, but I haven't had enough caffeine yet this morning...

I read that as the judge who shits perpetually in your head.

Ah, but there's a certain Freudian appropriateness about that, isn't there?

You've wept long enough.

Haven't we all?