Writing Intuitively, Part One   Writing Intuitively, Part Two

Writers use intuition in all kinds of situations, from deciding what to write, to making plot decisions, to following creative urges that make no logical sense.  Intuition is always trying to lead us to the right destination, and to get there we must learn to follow it.

Shakti Gawain, author of Developing Intuition, says that to capitalize on this innate faculty, we must pay attention to what’s going on inside us, quiet distracting thoughts and get in touch with that place where gut feelings reside.  In our logic-biased culture, this requires discipline and practice, but the benefits make it well worth the effort.

Here are some steps you can take to start developing and applying your intuition (for more detailed explanations, refer to Gawain’s book):

• Quiet your mind.  Allow 5-10 minutes for this exercise, and combine it with numbers 2 and 3 below.  Get comfy.  Close your eyes.  Take deep breaths through your nose, exhaling slowly through your mouth.  Imagine nourishing air moving into and out of your body.  Focus it with each breath into a different body part—feet, chest, head etc.—allowing each part to relax completely.  Let any thoughts that arise float away on your exhalations.

• Review and learn.  With a quiet mind, review your day in as much detail as possible, searching it for intuitive moments you may have overlooked.  Did you have any hunches today?  Any feelings of rightness or wrongness in your writing?  Feelings of knowing something without knowing why?  How did you handle these feelings?  Did you act on them?  Did you push them aside?  How did you feel afterwards?

• Shift awareness.  Imagine your mental awareness moving out of your head and into your solar plexus or belly, where intuition resides.  With each breath, go deeper into this place.  Ask yourself, “What do I need to remember or be aware of right now?”  Listen for thoughts, feelings or images that arise.  Be aware of how your body feels during this process.  With practice, you’ll be able to ask more pointed questions and become more adept at responding intuitively.

• Take action.  For one day, one week or longer, depending on your comfort level, imagine that your intuition is infallible.  Give yourself permission to act on it every time it arises, in writing or any other area of your life.  Let go of doubt and fear, and see what happens.  How does it feel to follow intuition?  To ignore it?  If you’re paying attention, you’ll notice a difference.

Once we’re tuned in, intuition can become a reliable guiding force in everything we do.  You know those synchronistic moments that happen in writing, those insights and connections that infuse our work with meaning?  They occur when we quiet our minds and let intuition speak.  When we trust it and listen, we tend to experience an increased sense of aliveness, a sense that in spite of the circuitous route we might have taken, we have somehow arrived exactly where we’re meant to be.

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In real life, conflict is a drag, but in fiction it's the driving force of story.  Without it, plots lose momentum, characters lose motivation, readers lose interest and the whole machine grinds to a halt.  When conflict resolves in life we're free to move unburdened to other things, but when it resolves in fiction the story is over.

To infuse our writing with a driving sense of purpose, we have to identify the most compelling conflicts--internal, external, interpersonal, etc.--and develop them to maximum effect.  Good writers do this intuitively, investing characters in conflict with motivation and capabilities equal to those of the adversary.  Remember Cormac McCarthy's protagonist in The Road?  If he didn't have his son's well-being to motivate him across the cannibal infested landscape, how far do you think his weak heart would have gotten him?  If Superman didn't have criminal genius Lex Luther to go up against, he'd be sitting at home watching reality TV.  The point is, conflict does nothing to drive story if the oppositional forces are unbalanced.

The following exercise is a great way to ensure that the characters you put into conflict come equally armed.  To get started, think of a conflict from your own life, a time when you were in a serious disagreement with someone and felt they were in the wrong.  Once you have a conflict in mind, write a letter to yourself from the other person's point of view.  Take on the voice and perspective of the adversary as he or she explains why you were the one in the wrong.

This exercise works best for interpersonal conflict, but can be adapted for other types as well.  Try writing a letter to your protagonist from her manic depression; to your hero from the hostile tundra he's stranded on; to your antagonist from the rabid dog that finally does him in.  Forced to consider the motivation and capabilities of the opponent, you will see that sustained, hard-to-resolve, driving conflicts--the ones that make compelling stories--have to be well-balanced; otherwise, they relinquish their grip with barely a whimper.

*adapted from Now Write!, edited by Sherry Ellis

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