Slay the Dragon

Joseph Campbell speaks about writing in Reflections on the Art of Living. He says, “get the writing out first. Forget the critic and just write. Afterward, you can bring in the critical factor and prune. . . . Do not think about the negative side. There will be negatives that are  going to come down, but you have to hold the door open if you are going to do anything that has not been done before. You have to suspend all criticism to do your work. In writing you have to do this all the time in order to get a sentence out. Suspending criticism is killing the dragon. They’ll shalt kill him. P. 269

Note: It’s true in writing. It’s true in all aspects of our lives. The biggest problem I had in working with students writing their dissertation was to help them move beyond thinking what they were going to write had to be perfect. Once they slayed that dragon, their writing flowed. If we think of the criticisms we’ll receive whether it’s making dinner, posting a blog, or choosing a personal adventure, we’ll never get it done the way we could do it if we didn’t think about what others would think. Slay the dragons in your life. You’ll feel a lot better.