What Writing with your Inner Intuitive Writer Feels Like
What does freedom feel like?
Does it feel like riding a bike downhill—feet flying, wind blowing your hair, your face upturned, smiling? Does it feel like tramping in the forest—tall hickories and elms towering above you, your arms loose as the day’s coolness touches your shoulders?
Or does it feel like the ocean—sun warming your scalp, salt on your lips, as you're buoyed again and again as waves gently lift and release you?
There's a sensation you get when you're writing your first draft of anything—one that lets you know you're tapping into something deeper than the thinking mind.
It can almost feel external at times, like a voice you hear that you're trying to capture word for word. But it’s located soundly in the body. And yet, the experience of writing from that space can feel a bit out-of-body. This feeling has an openness, an easiness of gait and movement. It can be gentle or strong. It may feel both familiar and unknown.
And, although its qualities vary from person to person, it most often feels like freedom.
If you're experiencing this sense while you’re writing your draft, you're most likely in touch with your inner intuitive writer. You're tapping into something powerful.
So how, if you haven’t really thought about this before or aren’t sure, do you know if you're in that energy? How do you know if you’re writing from that place of mystery and creation?
Your Felt Sense Intuitive Writer
Here's a brief exercise you can do to familiarize yourself with your own version of this.
Get Ready
Make sure you have a notebook, and a pen handy. Then, spend a few minutes clearing your mind and grounding, in whatever way works best for you.
Tune in
Close your eyes and ask yourself “What does freedom look like?” What is the first thing you saw or sensed that popped to mind?
Still closing your eyes, fill your mind’s eye with this image. What do you sense with your sight—are there details that fill in? What about any scents or sounds? Do you smell or hear anything? Is there a taste that comes to you?
Spend a few minutes with these sensory details.
Now, ask yourself one more question: “What do I know about myself as I am here in this moment, experiencing and feeling this image?” Take note of whatever pops in. It could be a word or a phrase, a little tune, or a sensation across your shoulders.
Take note
Open your eyes and quickly jot down a few details of what you envisioned and what you’d like to remember.
Drink it in
Once you have jotted down a few specifics of your experience, close your eyes again and hold all of this inside for a few moments. Feel it; familiarize yourself with it.
This your felt sense of writing intuitively, from your inner intuitive writer-self.
Now, whenever you pause during, or just after, a writing session, tune back into this sensation. You can ask yourself: “How much did the writing I just did now feel like this felt sense?” The answer will give you a sense of where you’re at on a continuum, how close you are to being in that space.
Every writing session won't feel the same, of course. But, when you approach writing intuitively and as freedom, letting yourself go on the page, you’ll be closer to tapping into your own truth, your own style, and your own voice.
And that, that’s what will make what you write shine—the way each star on the night’s ebony tapestry has its own distinct luminosity, its own brilliant hue.