My internal editor had blonde hair and blue eyes–looking suspiciously like me in stick figure form (I’m a writer. I don’t do graphic art–that’s my mother’s department). Once we had finished with our masterpieces, we were given an envelope to seal in our internal editor. The envelope was handed to the Municipal Liaison not to be returned until the end of the month when we had finished our novel. The rule for the month of November was no internal editing.

What’s internal editing? Well, if you have an internal editor then you tell yourself things like this when you sit down to write:

• That’s a stupid idea.
• That plot’s been done.
• No one will want to read that so don’t bother.
• Who do you think you are?
• You suck.
• You’re not smart enough.
• You’re not creative enough.
• You don’t really think you can do this, do you?

Who can write with all that noise? The envelope ritual is a way of telling yourself that this month you will not listen to the internal editor. No matter how stupid, how silly, how boring you think what you are writing is, write it anyway. Nothing is perfect on the first try, that’s what second drafts are for. And third drafts, and fourth drafts …

I haven’t gone to the community event again, but I like the idea of locking up the internal editor. Personally, I visualize a plexiglass cell. Then I drag the internal editor over to it (usually kicking and screaming–sometimes handcuffed and gagged if I’m feeling mean), stuff the little guy in there and close the box. I can see him but I can’t hear him–no matter how loud he screams or how much of a fit he throws. And then I sit down and write–it’s crap, it’s ridiculous, there are plot holes the size of galaxies, but it’s words on paper and once they are there I have something to build on. Sometimes I write outlandish things just to make the little guy’s head explode (he’s in a box so there’s no messy clean up).

Sooner or later I have to let the little guy out of his box (I forgot air holes, for one), usually on the second or third draft when he’s not so negative and actually has something useful to contribute. The internal editor is useful, you see, but not early in the process. Early in the process, he’s just that whiny guy in a meeting shooting down everyone else’s ideas until all the ideas are discounted and you’re left with nothing to work with.

Do you have an internal editor? Or are you one of those lucky people with an internal cheerleader?

#1: I know naming characters is tough, but this is the first time I’ve heard of someone doing market research with Google adwords to name their character. It’s interesting to see that names do make a difference. Now I’m curious if there are class or culture biases at work with the names–too bad the author doesn’t reveal the names.

#2: Not sure what to make of this: Random House Canada and McClelland & Stewart are closing their rights departments and outsourcing subsidiary rights sales/management to an independent agency. From the article:

The Cooke Agency International will handle the selling and licensing of foreign rights, permissions, and dometic book club sales. The selling of first and second serial rights will be handled by the Publicity departments of each company.

#3: Got an iPhone or an iPod Touch? Love handmade, geeky stuff? Yummypocket over at Etsy makes some really neat holders for the iPhone including an Etch-a-Sketch holder and a cassette holder.

#1: The best Kijiji ad ever. Kijiji is somewhat like Craigslist if you’re unfamiliar with it. Hey, if you’re going to ask for something for free, you might as well make it interesting (seriously, go read it).

#2: You may have heard that news that John Hughes died last week. He was the director of a number of movies, like The Breakfast Club, that defined the ’80s for many people in North America. In the wake of his death, there was a very interesting/touching post on a blog by a woman who was pen pals with John Hughes when she was a teenager.

#3: You know you’re unpopular when hackers trying to knock you off the web take out LiveJournal, Facebook, and Twitter to do it. Something tells me this guy is going to be unpopular with users of those sites for a while. In other news: Georgia and Russia are still not playing nice with each other.

#4: A humorous look at the ups and downs of writing (er, dating) a book from initial idea (first date) to publication (break up) by Libba Bray. Dang, I wish I was this clever.

#5: If you’ve been using Tr.im as your URL shortener, you’re out of luck. The service is shutting down. No word on what happens to all those shortened links people have made.

#6: It was bound to happen: Recent Amazon patent filings suggest ads are coming to Kindle ebooks.

#7: Do you know what it takes to be blocked by William Shatner on Twitter? Hilarious blog post by blockee.