When was the last time inspiration hit you? When was the last time you were in the flow state with your writing? For many writers, the answer to both of these questions is either, “a long time ago,” or, “I can’t even remember.” Although all of us strive to tune into our creativity and enjoy the writing process, sadly, this is a reality for very few of us.
What most writers don’t know is that there is always something specific blocking our creativity. Usually, we’re asking ourselves one particular question that not only interrupts our flow, but disconnects us entirely from the creative process. This is when we end up in a situation where we’re reacting to the creative process out of anxiety, instead of responding to our own creativity in the present moment. Continue Reading
About once a month, I’ll get an email from a reader who is struggling with writing and meeting deadlines. Usually, they’ve discovered my Intuitive Writing course and they’re extremely interested in learning how to connect more deeply with their intuition to feed their creative process. They like the way I describe how they can shift their relationship with writing from stress and pressure to adventure, fun, and ease. The only problem is, they don’t quite see how they can fit that in with their current writing life needs, which involve a lot of deadlines.
Much of the time these types of writers are screenplay writers who need to turn in projects by a certain date, and also need their scripts to meet a certain set of criteria. Sometimes they are freelance writers who are writing articles on topics assigned to them by a company or nonprofit. Occasionally, I even hear from ghostwriters who are writing something that is supposed to be in someone else’s voice, and they also have a firm deadline on when the work needs to be finished.
Nearly all of these writers who email me are tired, frustrated, and feeling defeated with their writing process. They tell me they feel blocked or stuck, and they’re just pushing themselves through the writing because they know there is a deadline and they have to get it done. But every time they sit down to work on the project, they feel like they would rather be anywhere else.
I get questions about intuitive writing all the time, and one of the questions I get most often is, ‘Is it possible to use Intuitive Writing in the editing process?’ The short answer is: yes. The longer answer is: most writers have no idea how to do this so things in this area can get sticky, very quickly.
Contrary to popular belief, using an intuitive approach to writing or editing does not mean that you have no structure, no plan, and that you just let yourself run wild and write what amounts to pure stream-of-consciousness. Using intuition—in the writing AND the editing process—means that you FEEL your way through the text, adjusting as you go according to what feels right. Usually, writers have an easier time doing this in writing than in editing because once they get to editing they tend to get into a problem-solving mindset of things needing to be fixed. Rather than looking at it as things needing to be fixed, I prefer to think of it as things being made clear. Continue Reading
That article triggered a flurry of questions from my readers about how to know when you can trust your intuition at all. Many people said that they’ve gotten “intuitive hits” in the past that turned out to be true later on, but they didn’t know how to listen to that intuition in the moment, when it was trying to steer them in the right direction.
The key is to know that each person has a unique set of inner cues that will come through the body, in a very specific and reliable way, every time their intuition is trying to get their attention. It’s just that we usually either brush off these signals from our body, or we don’t realize that’s what they are and so we don’t slow down to see what’s really happening.
Once we learn our unique set of body cues, we have a solid starting point with our intuition, and once we can get comfortable with intuitive tools like these, we can begin to use them in our everyday life and in our writing practice.
I talk more about this in the video below:
Learning how to use your intuition and building self-trust can transform your writing practice at a deep level that you’ve never seen before. Instead of feeling like you’re always trying to push your writing forward, it feels more like a path is opening up right in front of you and all you have to do is be open to following it.
I’m teaching these concepts and so much more in my upcoming online class starting May 2 (next week!) called Finding Your Writing Magic. We’re going to be learning about getting comfortable with the unconscious, working with story as a co-creative process, and writing as an act of power. If this sounds like something you would really like, be sure to sign up for my newsletter HERE to get the announcement when I open registration on April 27.
(Please note: This class will contain completely different material than my Intuitive Writing video course. We will touch on Intuitive Writing briefly as a tool, but only briefly. This is a new class with entirely new material.)
I won’t be teaching this class again, or making a video course from it, either. So, this is your only chance to take this class. Replays will be made available for those who can’t make the class live, and class members will get lifetime access to those replays, which is a great option for those who want to do it as a self-paced class in the weeks or months ahead.
If you want in, make sure you get in during the five-day registration window. And if you have any questions, you can contact me here.
I’ll see everyone in just a couple days when doors open for registration!
Lauren Sapala is the author of The INFJ Writer and The INFJ Revolution. You can get a free copy of her book on creative marketing for writers by signing up for her newsletter HERE.
In fact, this is one of the most commonly asked questions I get from clients and students. In both cases, fear and intuition feel like a strong urge or nudge to take action or go in a certain direction. Both can also feel pressing, necessary, and very immediate. For those who don’t have a lot of practice in accessing their intuition or listening to it, it can feel impossible to tell the difference on whether these inner signals are coming from a place of fear, or if they belong to that small, still voice within that will never steer you wrong.
This can be particularly tough for writers. Should your character really take that next step in the timeline, or are you just pushing them ahead because you feel panicky about the lack of progress with your story? It’s questions like these that plague writers who might be naturally intuitive people, but are not able to trust their intuition to the point where they can let it lead them creatively.
A lack of trust in your intuition in writing is directly related to a lack of trust in yourself in life. Writing and life are not two separate things to be put into two separate boxes. What affects one will always affect the other. This is why it’s so important for writers who are intuitively centered to give their intuitive skills priority, and do everything they can to develop self-trust from within.
The most basic place to start is learning how to tell the difference between intuition and fear. I talk more about this in the video below:
I’m teaching an online class this May called Finding Your Writing Magic and I’m going to be teaching writers how to work with their own natural intuitive style, how to access the magic in their creativity and everyday lives, and how to deeply connect with their own power in writing. If this resonates with you, then please make sure to sign up for my newsletter HERE to get all the updates on the class.
Please note: This class will contain completely different material than my Intuitive Writing video course. We will touch on Intuitive Writing briefly as a tool, but only briefly. This is a new class with entirely new material.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me here. First day of class is Monday, May 2 so please get those questions to me ASAP. I’ll see you all very soon with the last video in this series, all about how to know when you can trust the information your intuition is bringing through to you.
Lauren Sapala is the author of The INFJ Writer and The INFJ Revolution. You can get a free copy of her book on creative marketing for writers by signing up for her newsletter HERE.
