Kind. Nice. Sweet. These are all adjectives people often use to describe me as I mostly move through life with a smile on my face and words of encouragement on my lips.

But I have a secret.

Inside me lives a mean girl. Inside me lives a bully. No, this mean girl isn’t saying mean things about you behind your back.  She doesn’t have time for that. She’s too busy hurling insults at me nearly every hour of every day. She’s too busy pushing me around. She’s too busy calling me fat and pointing out the puffy dark circles under my eyes. She’s too busy telling me I’m a bad wife, a bad daughter, a bad sister and a terrible friend. And the activity that takes up most of her time is telling me I will never, ever be the writer I want to be.

This mean girl inside me might sound familiar because you might have a mean girl of your own. Ignoring her isn’t making her go away. So I say it’s time for us to fight back. 

Affirmations will be our weapon of choice. As writers, we obviously believe in the power of words. So let’s commit to speaking affirming words over ourselves, our lives, and our writing every day.

Related Reading: Affirmations for Women Who Write

How to Write Affirmations to Silence Your Inner Critic

Today I’m sharing 10 affirmations for writers to help quiet your inner critic. Keep in mind that these are affirmations that work for me, affirmations that make my inner mean girl shut the hell up. You may need to write your own. So let me first share how I wrote mine.

First, I let the mean girl run wild. I let her get it all out. I let her say every disparaging thing she wanted to say about my writing and about my writing dreams.

Here’s what she told me:

You’re too old to go after your dreams. You should be further along by now.
You’ll never be a well-known writer. 
You aren’t smart enough to be a successful writer.
No one cares what you have to say.
If you write a book no one will read it. If you publish a book no one will buy it.
You’re not strong enough to take the criticism and rejection well-known writers must face. You’ll never be successful because you live in Alabama.
You’re a fraud and one day everyone will find out.

I wrote down every thing she had to say. Then I recognized her words for what they really are — dirty, filthy lies. I ripped up her list of lies and then challenged each one with a statement of truth, my truth, God’s truth and words of wisdom from women I admire.

Related Reading: Affirmations for Christian Women Who Write

10 Affirmations to Quiet My Inner Mean Girl

As Roxane Gay once wrote, “You are not a late bloomer. You are already blooming.”

God has perfect timing. I will trust the truth of Rachel Hollis’ words when she wrote, “It’s highly possible that by not being where you thought you should be, you will end up exactly where you’re meant to go.”

The Lord blesses me and enlarges my territory, my influence, my impact.

I’m good enough. I’m smart enough. I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

Related Reading: Affirmations for Women Who Blog

I have a tribe of amazing women who support me in all I do.

The words I write are powerful and purposeful and change women’s lives.

As I take delight in the Lord, God grants me the desires of my heart.

I know who I am and what I can do. The opinions of others do not define me.

I bloom wherever I am planted.

I am free from imposter syndrome because my competence comes from God.

What affirmations do you use to silence your inner critic?