Inner Critic Investigation: Day 2

Catching up on Inner Critic Investigation, as I had to take some time for myself yesterday (and I’m trying not to get an earful from said critic for that, now).

Brief project summary: ask a question of your inner critic, write down everything they have to say, but only for six minutes. For question prompts, see Lucy Bellwood’s Patreon and Insta.

Archive:
Day 1. What’s your story?

Day 2. What are you trying to protect me from?

That’s an easy one, honey: failure. You know you can’t handle failure and rejection.

You still remember that C you undeservedly got on a uni paper, even though you’ve no idea anymore what course that even was. You remember the mean things that guy in your year said about your PowerPoint on baby seals.

Oh, and how about that job interview, where you breezed through stages 1 and 2, only to absolutely crash and burn on the 3rd one? Sure, you got the job in the end and aced it, but if you’re honest with yourself, which memory is more vivid: the two successful years on the job, or the interview fail?

And while we’re on the subject, need I remind you that you’ve never landed a job from a cold application? You’ve always come recommended by someone, you can’t market yourself on your own. You even had an in for your current gig, because your best friend worked on the guy’s project first.

Okay, so some of this is reaching, but I won’t deny that I royally suck at handling rejection. But hey, critic lady, I’m way ahead of you. My main objective for next year is the 100 Rejection Letters project. In addition to having a novel to send out to publishers, I’ll be pestering soooo many people for guest-blogging, I’ll rack up those rejections in no time.