Intuition

“Your intuition knows what to write, so get out of the way.” ~ Ray Bradbury

Dr. Tanya continues her Blogging Insights series by asking what we think of the above quote, with respect to blogging. I have to admit that I often respond to Blogging Insights with answers that relate to my “real” writing as opposed to blog posts. Granted, I sometimes post flash fiction and poetry here, which counts as real writing, but I don’t consider replies to questions or noodling about life in general to be on that level. That’s just chitchat. This post is chitchat. I don’t plan chitchat, nor do I have an end goal in mind. It’s just rambling. So, in that sense, I guess I’m writing from intuition, if we are contrasting that kind of writing with outlining a story, though this doesn’t really make much sense to me.

To me, intuition comes into play when we’re making snap decisions. Can I trust this person or not? Will I have more fun at the party or the concert? What should I order for dessert? Those are all in the “feeling” range of mind work, rather than the logical side, which helps me do math, play games, understand plots, etc. Yet even so, feelings come from somewhere, and I believe they are generated from a range of prior experiences. As an adult, I don’t think any of my mind is a “blank slate.” Every bit of it has some scribbled notes from a thing that has already happened, or hasn’t happened, as the case may be. This is what helps me to decide instantly to order cheesecake rather than banana cream pie ~ I already know cheesecake is delicious and BCP is icky because of prior experience. Perhaps “intuition” is simply faster logic.

When I consider the writing process, every word I put down is coming from my left brain. Whether we are talking about sentence structure, spelling, or thoughts themselves, it simply does not compute that these activities spill directly from my right brain. Ideas may originate in the bubbling vat of feelings, but they have to be translated into words via the logical side of my mind (and a quick google search confirms that language is a left brain function). Even now, I’m editing what I’ve previously typed right here in this post, in order to make sure my thoughts are presented accurately.

Perhaps what Bradbury is saying is a NaNoWriMo type of concept: just fill the page with some garbage already so that you have something to edit. There’s nothing more frustrating than endlessly staring at the blank screen because you haven’t thought of the perfect way to begin your story. Start anywhere and fix it later. Of course, Bradbury edited his work; every writer does ~ it’s the main part of writing. So I’m not sure what he means by intuition, other than just get going.

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