Realizing the parameters of the problem is half way to the solution. Thanks for that.

I don't write fiction and I don't have a muse. my writer self is serious about impacting for good. Imagination is for solutions that will work or cause people to think. So I especially appreciate the visual you gave me here!

I love the idea of putting the critic in a cage. When I was a teenager one of my friends was dealing with a bully who had an icky voice phrase that we adopted as our own: "cage the blibick" or cage the little blibick.

He called her this as an insult and as an indication of taking her freedom as a non person. He was a bully. Yet we saw it as a phrase to use when someone was icky, like this Troy Clayton dude who invented the phrase. We even had a hand movement like a downward claw as we said it. He may have invented that too.

Now I know the name of the never satisfied or content inner critic. And by naming it, I know exactly what to do per your suggestion and imagery that sparked the name - cage that blibick and put the velvet cover over it. Even my editor self will not need to relate to the blibick bitch.

Thank you for the imagery I need and for spelling the issue out so well.