Mining Your Intuition

“A logic teacher I once had told us that an intuition is like a container, it comes packed with the information you will need in order to realize what you sensed in that intuitive moment, but it must be unpacked.”

That statement describes how I go about writing.

I begin with an intuition or what I call “an intuitive hit.” Another way to say this is that I begin with an idea that is emotionally meaningful to me and is pregnant and filled with possibilities. But the details of the story unfold only as I unpack the hit.

How do I know that this will work?

Because of my emotional response, the resonance I feel, the conviction that I am on to something. I have been touched deeply and it’s worth pursuing.

I don’t know what those possibilities are when I begin In fact there’s no way I can know. Because an intuition is an invitation into mystery, the mystery of the story.

I don’t mean a mystery story, intuitions can result in love stories, sports stories, political stories. I don’t believe you can have an intuition sufficient to motivate you to write outside of what you are usually are interested in. So when an intuitive hit occurs I have to pay attention. It’s the entranceway into a gold mine of feelings, images, ideas that become the marrow of the project – a book, a short story, a screenplay.

For example, one of my favorite themes is Leaving Home. I don’t mean the obvious understanding of leaving home: moving to a different house in a different city or state or country for that matter. That’s a superficial meaning of the phrase Leaving Home.

The home I am referring to is the psychological home we all carry with us, in the unconscious mostly, as a result of the experiences in our early family life. To leave home deeply, fully, and effectively, requires effort and self-awareness, which are qualities that do not come with birth but must be developed.

In the first book of my Leaving Home trilogy I began with a one line hit: “Shot and a beer,” Uncle Bo shouted as he walked through the back door, his wife, Irene, in tow. This moment is the first line of my first book Worship of Hollow Gods, which page opens on a kitchen scene in the home of my parents in Detroit in 1950. Relatives are gathering for a poker and pinochle party— a family ritual. From that intuitive hit a 203 page novel emerged.

I say emerged.

I have learned to trust such intuitive hits and know that they contain all that I need to complete whatever the project is.

Because of my trust, I don’t then lay out a plot. Why not? Because I don’t know the plot. The plot will emerge as the story is being told – or to say it another way, as the story tells itself as the characters interact and I follow along. What I do next, after the “hit,” I begin writing because, in truth, there is nothing else to do. I build my stories around the interaction of the characters organically evolving in situations. And as long as I am honest with the storytelling, the characters who exist inside the intuition will come forth. It’s my job to listen and follow.

I do not impose on a story. That’s to say, I don’t manipulate them to make sure a plot works. I let them lead and the plot comes to life. In that way my writing is very intimate, of the moment, producing a fluidity that makes the reading easy, carrying the reader along. My process makes writing joyful for me—a process of discovery for me and the reader.

The moments in the story are authentic to the story because they belong to the story and not to me. They emerge out of situations and are not known beforehand. This approach protects against predictability. I’m sure you’ve read books or seen movies that from the first moments you know how they will end. You can almost predict the development. That takes the pleasure out of reading, out of being the author’s imaginative partner.

Intuitive “hits” don’t just happen at the beginning of writing, and, of course, when I feel them they must be followed throughout the storytelling. They can change the course of the story and can take it in directions you have to explore to be able to express. Trust your intuitive hits, they are loaded.


Neill Hahn

Personal Counselor.... retired and now Life Reviewing.

7 年

Thanks Jim, that's the most useful explanation of putting intuition to work that I have ever seen. The word is too often used to say "I don't know why I did/thought that" as if that must mean some mystical power is at work. But if 'mystical' is used to explain the powers in the world, which we don't yet understand, then if we are honest, there would be a long list of things under "mystical". Intuition as an invitation into mystery - I find that a brilliant way to see and use it!

要查看或添加评论,请登录

Jim Sniechowski, PhD的更多文章

  • Winner!!

    Winner!!

    I am super excited to announce that for the 2024 Hollywood Book Festival, in the category of “SCREENPLAYS” – here are…

  • WONDERFUL REVIEW OF MY LATEST NOVEL!

    WONDERFUL REVIEW OF MY LATEST NOVEL!

    I'm very proud to share this book review with you! Reviewed by Doreen Chombu for Readers’ Favorite Second Life by James…

  • Heads Up! / Mouths Up!

    Heads Up! / Mouths Up!

    I just had a miracle procedure done two weeks ago on my upper gum by a surgeon who specializes in what is called a…

  • Reincarnation + Deep Love

    Reincarnation + Deep Love

    Submitted to the Pulitzer Contest for 2023 Fiction! My 4th novel, Second Life: Because the First One is Not Yet…

  • New Book Coming Out Soon!

    New Book Coming Out Soon!

    Coming out soon - our latest book! Easy to digest! Easy to implement! Easy to see your life changing--for the better!…

    3 条评论
  • Our New Book - To Change Your Life

    Our New Book - To Change Your Life

    We are very excited! Coming out soon - our latest book! Overcoming the Fear of Being Fabulous 33 Keys to Creating Your…

  • AN AMBITION TO BELONG - an award winner

    AN AMBITION TO BELONG - an award winner

    Street Gang Member! Working Class Catholic Altar Boy! High Society Private Jesuit High School Student! Turbulent…

  • Do You Feel Like An Imposter?

    Do You Feel Like An Imposter?

    How often are you concerned about feeling like an Imposter? Do the thoughts in your head want to undermine your…

  • How Much Do You Know?

    How Much Do You Know?

    In 1964 physical chemist and philosopher Michael Polyani coined the concept of “Tacit Knowledge.” It can be unpacked to…

    6 条评论
  • Perfection and the Imposter Syndrome

    Perfection and the Imposter Syndrome

    What is the Relationship Between Perfection and the Imposter Syndrome?For starters let’s take a look at the simple…

    2 条评论

社区洞察

其他会员也浏览了