Intuition: that tiny voice that speaks from your gut.
Recently, I made a goal of trying to slow down and listen to my gut, listen to that voice that speaks to me about all manner of things that are good or bad for me. What have I found? The voice of intuition is much quieter that that of my writing censor.
My writer's censor is easy to hear. She comes to me loud and clear as I'm working on a first draft. Generally, she throws phases at me like: That's awful! Who would read that? That's stupid. You're not good enough!
It seems her "job" is to stop my headlong progress. It's a battle where the lines are text and I must be armored if I am to win. My censor also is present the next day, when I review my previous day's work. Once again, she gives her thoughts, none of which are positive, most are not even helpful. Sometimes she almost dares me to throw my the work away and start over.
As writers we all have that voice in our ear - the one that tells us to stop writing, that our words are not worthy. But as writers, we also have a story to tell. That story is in you, and your job is to get it down on paper. So in thinking about goals for 2013, perhaps one could be to listen to the story in you, armor yourself against your censor and get the words on paper. There will be plenty of time later to refine your work during the editing process. Fight back.
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D. Jean Quarles is a writer of Women's Fiction and a co-author of a Young Adult Science Fiction Series. Her latest book, Flight from the Water Planet, Book 1 of The Exodus Series was written with coauthor, Austine Etcheverry.
D. Jean loves to tell stories of personal growth – where success has nothing to do with money or fame, but of living life to the fullest. She is also the author of the novels: Rocky's Mountains, Fire in the Hole and, Perception. The Mermaid, an award winning short story was published in the anthology, Tales from a Sweltering City.
She is a wife, mother, grandmother and business coach. In her free time . . . ha! ha! ha! Anyway, you can find more about D. Jean Quarles, her writing and her books at her website at www.djeanquarles.com
You can also follower her at www.djeanquarles.blogspot.com or on Facebook
