The Watcher at the Gates: Notes on Creative Inhibition and Godwin's Essay
Biographical Background
Gail Godwin is an American author known for her extensive body of short stories, novels, journals, and essays examining the craft and psychology of writing.
Birthplace: Birmingham, Alabama.
Current Residence: Woodstock, New York.
Published Works: Author of thirteen novels, alongside published personal journals and reflective essays on writing.
Discovery of the Internal Critic
The internal restraining critic—conceptualized as the "Watcher at the Gates"—is an internal psychological agent that stifles creative energy and suppresses early inspiration (metaphorically described as sapping "the juice from green inspirations").
Initial Discovery: The shared nature of this creative blockage was discovered while reading Sigmund Freud's The Interpretation of Dreams.
The Irony of Discovery: An inner critic originally impelled the consultation of Freud. While writing a novel, doubts arose regarding whether the heroine could experience a specific dream sequence. Reaching out to an established authority on dream mechanics led directly to Freud's analysis of creative inhibition.
Friedrich Schiller's Allegory of Intellect
In The Interpretation of Dreams, Sigmund Freud references a personal letter from German poet Friedrich Schiller to a friend who was complaining of an inability to create.
Schiller's Allegory: Schiller explained that creative paralysis occurs when the intellect inspects incoming ideas too closely at the entry threshold ("the gates").
Dynamics of Ideas: In isolation, a single idea may seem insignificant or wildly venturesome. However, its true value often only emerges through the subsequent ideas that follow it.
The Creative Mind vs. Non-Creative Mind:
Creative Mind: The intellect intentionally withdraws its guards from the gates, allowing ideas to flood in uninhibited ("pell-mell"). Scrutiny and critical evaluation occur only after the ideas have accumulated.
Inhibited Mind: The intellect rejects ideas prematurely and discriminates too harshly out of fear or shame regarding the temporary irrationality present during creation.
The Definition of the Artist: Schiller posits that all true creators experience a momentary and passing madness. The variable duration of this temporary madness distinguishes the actively thinking artist from a passive dreamer.
Tactics and Behaviors of the Watcher
Watchers across different individuals share a single, primary objective: rejecting too soon and discriminating too severely.
Common Procrastination Behaviors:
Obsessive pencil sharpening and typewriter ribbon changing.
Excessive plant watering and household repairs.
Intense aversion to messy physical spaces or cluttered manuscript pages.
Compulsive reference checking ("looker-uppers").
Superstitious and risk-averse behavior.
Cultivation of self-important eccentricities presumed to be fitting for "writers."
Willingness to destroy underlying inspiration to prevent the risk of looking foolish.
Specific Watcher Manifestations
Godwin's Personal Watcher
Insists on using high-quality 20-pound bond paper above and below carbon paper during initial drafts.
Whispers demoralizing critiques, such as: "What's the good of writing out a whole page if you just have to write it over again later? Get it perfect the first time!"
Interrupts active morning writing sessions by demanding immediate drives to the library to research trivial facts, claiming: "You can't possibly go on till you've got this right!" Specific examples of forced research include checking:
The specific name of a flower.
Details of a World War II battle.
A specific line of metaphysical poetry.
Other Observed Watcher Behaviors
Sentence Halting: Forcing the writer to stop in the exact middle of a well-crafted sentence to preserve momentum for the next day under the threat of running dry.
Medical Sabotage: Barring progress on a manuscript until a routine dental appointment is completed under the pretense that art cannot be conceived while worrying about teeth.
Binocular Distance Checking: Forcing a writer to pin completed pages onto a clothesline and inspect them through binoculars to judge their physical appearance from a distance.
Extortionate Bribes: Requiring self-destructive indulgences—such as lethal doses of caffeine or heavy alcoholic doses of Scotch, vodka, or wine—before granting permission to work.
Strategies to Outsmart, Pacify, and Coexist with the Watcher
Outpacing and Evading
Unexpected Conditions: Write at unusual times or in unexpected environments before the Watcher can setup defenses.
Fatigue: Draft text when excessively tired to lower analytical vigilance.
Unconventional Mediums: Write with purple ink on unusual surfaces, such as the back of a Master Charge statement.
Steam Whistle Deadlines: Draft continuous stream-of-consciousness thought while waiting for a kettle to boil, using the impending whistle as an unyielding time limit.
Rapid Galloping: Emulate Virginia Woolf, who successfully captured creative "diamonds in the dust heap" by writing at a "rapid haphazard gallop" within her personal diaries.
Disguise and Strategic Deception
Epistolary Framing: If blocking prevents narrative progress, frame the text as an informal letter to a friend describing what the intended story or chapter will eventually contain.
Drafting Mock Reviews: Dash off an overly favorable published "review" of the unfinished work. A glowing self-review serves as a psychological deterrent against Watcher interference.
Constructive Dialogue and Coexistence
Visual Personification: Draw a literal picture of the Watcher and pin it to the wall of the workspace. Gently turn the picture face to the wall when uninterrupted concentration is required.
Post-Inspiration Editing: Repurpose the Watcher during the revision phase. Once raw inspiration is committed to paper, Watchers act as precise, sharp-eyed, and dependable editors.
Jungian Written Dialogues: Emulate Carl Jung's practice of engaging personal demons by writing a direct letter to the Watcher.
Godwin conducted this exercise by asking: "Dear Watcher, What is it you're so afraid I'll do?"
Allowing the Watcher to write the response directly, it answered in a single word: "Fail."
This candid revelation demonstrates that the Watcher's harsh judgment stems fundamentally from an underlying fear of failure.
Key Historical Figures and Terminology
Sigmund Freud (1856–1939): Austrian psychiatrist, physician, and the founder of psychoanalysis; author of The Interpretation of Dreams.
Friedrich Schiller (1759–1805): Major German poet, philosopher, and playwright.
Carl Gustav Jung: Swiss psychiatrist who used direct written dialogue to process internal psychological demons.
Allegory: A narrative device in which abstract ideas, moral principles, or psychological states are represented through symbolic characters or actions.