*** I posted this on my author blog, but also wanted to share it here. If you want to follow my author page (which I want to use more), head on over to https://nicoleherronwrites.wordpress.com ***
I’m learning so much about intuitive creativity lately. It’s coming at just the right time, I think. I’m signed up for Lauren Sapala’s Intuitive Creativity workshop, which started on Tuesday. I also discovered Becca Syme and her book “Hey Writer, Are You Intuitive?” As I’ve been reading it I’ve had so many ah-ha moments.
She talks about the five different types of intuition: social, spatial, spiritual, intellectual, and systemic. I realized as I read her descriptions that I have more social intuition, my daughter is very spatial, and my husband is very much a systemic intuitive. Knowing that there are different kinds of intuition is helpful because as a person that already feels as if she’s always getting it “wrong” because she’s not like anyone else, I sometimes feel like I’m getting intuition “wrong” because it’s not like someone else’s.
I think the biggest ah-has were from the chapters on discovery writing. She talked about how different intuitives have different ways of approaching writing. Some need to know nothing when they sit to write. Some need to know characters only. Some need a premise or beginning/middle/end. And there isn’t a wrong way here either.
I realized that what I need most is to know characters. I find that I always start thinking about and developing characters, then a loose premise. When I wrote my NaNo novel in 2020 I had no idea where the story was going or how it would end. I just wrote each day and the characters drove the plot. Yet I still try to plan out a plot before I sit down to write because I feel like that’s what I’m “supposed” to do and I end up stuck. I do much better if I just write without knowing.
Reading this book and taking the course with Lauren feel like I’m being given permission to stop trying to do things the “right” way and just do them MY way. I don’t fully know what my way is, but I’m figuring it out. Which is a big relief. I’ve felt like an imposter because I don’t do things the way the experts say you should. But it turns out, they don’t know me. Only I do. And I need to trust that I am a writer, even if it looks different from others.
I have a story idea that I’ve felt stuck on because I couldn’t figure out what the plot should be. I just know who the characters are and why they are brought together, I don’t know how to get them there or where the story will go. I’ve written about 1,200 words so far. But haven’t written on it for more than a week because I felt like I needed to plan more and just couldn’t do it. Now I’m hopeful that I don’t need to plan, I just need to write and see where it goes.
I don’t have time to work on it this morning, but hopefully I’ll get a chance later today or over the weekend. Tomorrow Lauren is hosting a Guided Creativity session for workshop participants, so I’m hoping I can use that time to do some discovery writing (I love that term!). I’m feeling a sense of empowerment from giving myself permission to not know. It’s like a weight off my shoulders. Who knew?!
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