No Chance Meetings Part Two

I wrote a couple of weeks ago about a synchronicity that I followed up on. I'd run into someone multiple times and decided to introduce myself to see if there was a message she had for me (see blog post No Chance Meetings from April 21st). Though I believe in synchronicity, I was still a little surprised at the coincidence that she was trying to make a career change into freelance writing and researching. (No matter how intuitive you think you are, your ego is still going to tell you you're making it all up.)We were at a conference for corporate women so there were very few writers there. The fact that she ran into me of all people was a stroke of luck -- or synchronicity -- on her part.

Or so I thought. I agreed to speak with her and give her some tips, but it turns out, I benefited more from the meeting than I thought I would. One of my goals is to finish my first novel -- a goal that has gone uncompleted for years. That's actually one of her main goals too. So we've formed a writer's group in which we'll meet once a week to hold each other accountable. The funny thing is, earlier that week, I had been thinking hard about that dream I have to write fiction and wondering how to finally make it happen. That chance meeting was an answer. We'll see if it's the right one.

A Novel Lesson

A comment to the post about imagination and intuition referenced the fact that fiction writers sometimes tap into future events. (Check out this blog post about how Edgar Allan Poe seems to have written about an event before it happened). As a fiction lover who is working steadily to finish my first novel, that thought really fascinated me.

I’ve often heard other writers talk about how they have no control over the plot; rather, they sit down to write and the characters come alive and take over the story. My logical mind thought that was a bunch of “caca.” I figured these writers were just trying to sound artsy. But I was wrong because my story does seem to be taking on a life of its own. In fact, a character that I intended to be a minor player came onto the canvas and I liked him so much that I made an entire plot adjustment to give him more action.

I don’t know whether I’m tapping into some future occurrence. (Wouldn’t it be great to create the characters we want to enter our lives and erase the ones we’d like to leave behind?) But the one thing this process is helping me to do is leave my logical mind at the door. When I started writing this book, I had this long outline that detailed what would happen in each scene. As I filled in the blanks, fleshing out my little blueprint, I started to become bored, and frankly, the book started to feel like a chore. And then one day I had an idea that differed from my outline and I went with it. Since then, I’ve veered so far off course from that outline that I have no idea where the book is heading – but the process has become a lot more interesting and alive.

Intuition works the same way. If we have to control everything, we don’t have the flexibility to adapt to a flash of inspiration. And if we’ve already planned out our every step, what’s the point of having intuition to guide us along in the first place?

Intuitive Action Item: Think of something you’ve created ‘a plan’ for. This might be a tough one, but scrap your plan. Just wing it instead and see what happens. It might turn out better than you thought.