Sneaky little critical voice nearly got me today.

I was working along on Siva’s story when I started to see (*gasp*) a plot hole. I knew it would be something I’d have to adjust for or completely fix. I was opting for adjusting, but I didn’t see how I was going to be able to do that.

I had to go all the way back to chapter 2 to read a conversation one of my characters had with another at that point. Thank goodness for Plottr — it saved me a couple times today when I had to go hunting for things. As I was reading the chapter to refresh myself, my critical voice jumped in.

Aw, see? It’s just the way you thought it was. That means you have a lot of fixing to do. Do you really want to go through the whole book and fix this? Aw, you should just quit now. Scrap this book. It’s not worth the time it will take you to fix it. There’s no way you can make that seem logical. Uh-huh, still thinking about how you can adjust the story. You are wasting your time. Seriously, give this one up and go start another. Stop already.

Yep, that whole conversation blazed though my head in a matter of seconds.

Fortunately, my creative voice said, “Let’s just go back to where we were and take another look at it. Trust the process.”

I’ve been around this block enough times to know that if I put the book aside and stop writing it, then I have wasted time. In painting, the only wasted paint is the paint still in the tube. In writing, the only wasted words are the ones never committed to the page. Considering that I’m no longer counting words until the project is finished, that would make everything I’ve done the last couple of weeks as uncommitted words. I wasn’t ready to give up.

Once back at the spot where I’d left off, I continued, and wrote through the scene. My critical voice was just beside itself in shock. I swear, you can probably still hear it being flabbergasted. The book is still on track and moving closer to being finished.

Score another for the little creative voice.

Trust the process.