I’ve
been taking this online course called
LiveYour Truth by Carol Tuttle. It’s
frighteningly accurate. It basically identifies four energy movements and then
helps you learn which is your dominant type and how to live in a way that you
are in harmony with how your energy flows. It’s fascinating. It accurately
called how my thought processes work, what my hairstyle I wear now looks like,
how I deal with everyday tasks and even what my desk looks like.
Mind
blown.
What
does that have to do with writing?
More
than you’d think.
The
movement types are the typical elements of Air, Water, Fire, and Earth. Nothing
new there until you really delve into it.
As an
example, a Fire person is goal oriented but also compartmental. According to
Carol, a Fire’s morning might look something like this: Get up, make the bed
but only partway, start the coffee, shower, start doing her hair but only
partway, put on makeup but only partway, and then go back to making the bed,
pouring the coffee, work on the hair, work on the makeup and then back around
again until all the tasks are complete. She has the ability to work on several
things at the same time and successfully achieves several tasks at once.
So how
that relates to an energy movement in writing is like this: A Fire will carve
out her hour but won’t write straight through that hour. She’ll
compartmentalize it by writing 10 or 15 minutes and then will get up to feed
the dogs or check in with her writer pals on Chatzy orTwitter and tell them
where she’s at with her goal, or some other task. Then back to writing for
another segment of time and up again to complete another task, then back to
writing. That suits her creative energy perfectly.
For
me, things like Chatzy drive me crazy. But I’m a Water. Like a slow curving
river. When I’m writing, I don’t want any distractions. My course is set.
(Heavy plotter.) I even write in longhand because my creative energy flows much
better in the movement of swirls and continuous cursive. Like that river. The
tap tap tap on a keyboard just doesn’t do it for me. I also have to work from
beginning to end. No jumping from one scene to another back and forth like an
Air or Fire can both do and pull it all together into something fabulous.
Speaking
of Air. These writers are light and fun. I’d guess they tend to have more humor
in their stories. They also have a million ideas rapid firing in their brains. They
are the ones who have ten manuscripts started, yet have a difficult time
finishing one before another idea lassoes their attention. Air energy people
need good critique partners and deadlines to hound them to finish. These
writers will also tend to be predominantly pantsers because that’s way more
fun. They are also most likely the writers who love to make collages of their
characters for inspiration.
Then
there’s the energy of the Earth. I imagine these writers sitting at the same
place every time they write with both feet flat on the floor and posture
straight. They are also the heavy
thinkers and perfectionists. They think long and hard before beginning a
manuscript and plot everything out and then second guess themselves as they
rethink everything. They’ll edit a chapter several more times than the rest of
us before it’s deemed good enough for them.
They tend to take much longer to write a full manuscript but the words
are extremely powerful when they are done.
As you
can tell, I’ve been enjoying learning about my true nature in a lot of aspects
of my life. (And secretly trying to guess what each of yours are.) Writing is just one aspect, but understanding
my own energy movement gives me permission to not worry about writing exactly
the same way as another or trying to achieve the same word count or wonder why a process that works so well for
someone else totally fizzles for me. I
enjoy my process so much more now that I better understand why I do what I do
and appreciate the creative energy flow of what works well for other writers
without getting frustrated trying to emulate something that won’t necessarily
work for me, or even better, discovering the things that do.
So did
you recognize yourself in any of these processes? Have a little bit of all of
them in you?
Clover
Autrey
NTRWA
President
