“You read my mind.”
Many years ago, in my collage days (so, okay, many, many
years ago:>) I got to overhear a psychic talk about how to improve our
intuition. Of course most of the students wanted her to read their futures.
And, though skeptical, I was no different. But that is a story for another
post. What intrigued me, even back then, was the psychic’s day job…. teaching
executives in the Silicon Valley how to use their intuition to make better
business decision.
If the overall success of the valley is any measure, I would
say that for a while at least intuition was running high in that golden
atmosphere. I do wonder, though, if along the way, any of the executives
thought back to her lessons and thought, huh, something seems off.
But, in any case, the idea that this psychic could make
legitimate money teaching people to use intuition was shocking to me. Didn’t
everyone rely on their intuition? Even back then it was something I leaned n
heavily in my schoolwork and life. And now, as an author, it is critical to how
I write my stories. There is a sixth sense that kicks in when I am on the right
track with one of my characters or with a plot element. People often ask how I
come up with my stories… and by this I believe they mean more than the
overarching plot. Even more, it is the little details in a story that give it
life and tie each element together to make a whole.
Of course part of this happens by knowing my characters so
well that it feels obvious what they would do in any situation. But there is
more to it as well. Recently I found myself stuck in a revision I was doing. I
needed a reason for the characters to linger in a particular city. As I did my
research on where they might go, I found myself drawn to one particular tourist
attraction in this city. Ultimately they go to have tea at a special Tisaneria, or tea house. As often
happens, tea was already a theme in the book and somehow I had landed them in a
spot which reinforced this element.
October is Paranormal Month at Romancing the Genres. So what
better time than now to flex our psychic muscles and work on trusting our
intuition a bit. Here’s a link to get you started: http://www.essentiallifeskills.net/develop-your-intuition.html
Then come back and let the October authors know how the
experiment worked for you. My intuition says October is going to be a great
month!
Cheers,
Deanne
Deanne
4 comments:
My mother has always claimed psychic abilities, and I do believe she has some--though I think most of it is a heightened awareness of people's emotions and reactions.
There have been studies around successful executives and their Myers-Briggs designation. It seems that intuition always rates high. The "I" (intuitive) on the Myers-Briggs. I believe we all have intuition but some people choose to ignore it, or at least not trust it.
My Myers-Briggs designation is almost off the charts in intuitive and I have to say it has served me well in everything I've done in my career. The one problem is it's very hard to explain how that works for me--particularly to those who discount intuition and, instead, rely on their ability to "sense" reality. Sensers rely on statistics and what they can touch, hear, see, taste instead of the seemingly ambiguous intuition.
Intuition serves me especially well as a writer. I am constantly intuiting what my characters would say or do next and how they would feel in the situation. One has to use intuition to write fiction because it doesn't actually exist until it's on the page.
Interesting post and link, Deanne. I think I've done the Meyers-Briggs but not recently and I've no memory of what 'I am'. However, I've done workshops and reading on developing our psychic muscles and intuition and know when I follow the ideas presented, it works! And, those ideas are similar to what's in the article. The other piece is to pay attention to when it works---who do you think is calling you? when will you hear back from someone? there are hundreds if not thousands of ways we can stretch those psychic muscles!
When do you think Romancing The Genres will pass 100,000 page views? January 20, 2014. Time will tell...
Great post, Deanne! Interesting article as well. When I have ignored my intuition in the past, the results have been lousy.
I hadn't thought about my writing process this way, but intuition plays a huge role.
I know exactly what you mean, Deanne! I wish my intuition kicked in more often, though. Some days it feels like a struggle but when I go back and read it, it works! Well, to me, at least. :-)
Great post!
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