Dear Writer, Are You Intuitive?

Walking away from the computer faster. Writing about writing without the “I give up” moment. Going to research the thing I keep trying to avoid researching. Leaving the house faster. Tracking back to read what you’ve already written without it being the last resort.

When you look through the different types of coordinates we discussed, if you’re in that 5/8 of writers who isn’t heavily on one planning extreme or another, pick out all the types of coordinates you’ve used in the past. Copy those descriptions or the questions onto a piece of paper (or use the Stuck List workbook we discussed earlier2). Keep that

But just because someone else does the activity for fun or for leisure or outside of their work time… that doesn’t mean it isn’t still work when it’s work.

Even. If. You. Also. Enjoy. These. Activities. They. Are. Still. Work.

Keep watching movies or shows. Keep reading good books. Keep consuming story. Keep looking at your own story. Keep researching. Keep thinking about your characters or discovering more about them. Keep feeding yourself the data or processing the data how you normally process it.

If we’re intuitive, or if we’re abstract, or if we’re big-picture, we want to edit for intuitive concepts, abstract concepts, or big-picture concepts. We want to edit for coordinates. Are my characters making compelling choices that create conflict (internal or external)? Are the stakes high enough? Do they have enough to lose (internally or extern

More importantly, editing is one of the best ways to hone your intuition.

So when it comes to something like editing, if you have gifted writer syndrome, you will likely struggle with editing because that’s not what you’ve spent your life being good at.

You’ve intuited your way through a plot. You know there are problems behind you that need fixing. You are not wild about the idea of having to go back and fix things. Some may actually loathe the idea of going back and editing.