Energy, Imagination and Memory: ENERGY and how tapping into it can be a secret weapon for writers.

Being "sensitive" or super "perceptive" has always been a problem for me. I recently found a ton of old writing of my own from the early 2000's. Parts of novels and diaries that make me feel a little better. I wrote a lot about my tendency to notice everything, feel everything and over-analyze to the point of near neurosis.  

I have a sneaking suspicion that my doing such analysis was/is to counter argue instincts and natural intuitions that might seem counter to what I THINK is best, or "too big" and "overwhelming." The main thing I have figured out is that energies and sensing them allows for the secret weapon of palpable descriptions, parlaying information from all senses, and tapping into all kinds of untaught aspects of creative writing that people FEEL or consider soul-writing. 

Authors (I believe) used such awareness to have "Soul" in their writing: Sylvia Plath, Sara Teasdale, Hemingway, Thoreau, Whitman, D.H. Lawrence, E.E.Cummings, Henry Miller, Anais Nin, Nabokov, F.Scott Fitzgerald, Maya Angelou, Paulo Coelho, Joanne Harris, Salmon Rushdie, Cheryl Strayed, Erin Morgenstern, Victoria Redel...to name a very few. 

I am nobody, not an expert on writing, or much, really....but I found this excerpt and it's so interesting to read how I describe energy, and it's aid in writing. I'm obviously bias, but I still agree. Maybe more so.

Lulu on Energy, February, 2003:

There is a strange energy that moves around all major beings. I found that energy cuts air. There is something clearly interlaced about it all. It is not something that can be proven like mathematics or molecular make up of a fetal pig in formaldehyde. I think somewhere along the skippy-path of my Tony Robbins long-weekend we covered the electric make up of different living organisms.

I first became a “believer” in the possibilities of energy when I was in the midst of energy spinning silence. It was kind of electrical force that can bounce you off walls and off ceilings like a little red rubber ball. Nothing was being said, just the thoughts of what could be said or done.

Within the massive conference hall the San Francisco Hyatt Regency it appeared in Jumbotron Jumboness. People were getting up and professing their mistakes or their future hopes. It was amazing how energy feeds off of energy. You could feel it in the room; you could breathe it in. All of them eager to come out a new person or as the changed and improved version of their life-ridden self and it was a primal sense for all.

Something would change. It was cheesy and all the things you expect from a non-spontaneous, pre-arranged life-changing experience for thousands of people paying thousands of dollars. 

I decided, when my father handed me the tickets that I would take what I wanted from it, and leave the rest for the middle-aged Desperados. I did. But I changed, shockingly I really did.

I’m far more interested in the power of change in attitude and the movement of both (change and attitude) through air, through words, vapors, and whispers. I have spent half of my life trying to prove it. Not knowing exactly what or how I was trying to debunk the mystery of how we affect each other, I have still been quite persistent. 

What I do know, is that energy effects my writing in a huge way. It sparks something, creates words, situations and feelings that I can't take full credit for. Imagination and my insanely accurate memory. Word. For. Word- type memory.  (Also cause for many arguments and self-loathing after break-ups) Not always cool, but great for trying to be a novelist.   

There are a few ways to sense and harness energy as I (A mere lay-person) understands it:

1.    First off, one must be open to the idea that others are reading between the lines and perceptive to subtlety. Without this ability a person is incapable of participating in such emotional exchanges, or if only half aware you may feel something, but know not it's source or what to do with it. Without openness, encounters will be reduced to noticing nothing, or the obvious and surface realizations of situations at the exact moment its occurring or worse, after the fact. 

2.    This brings me to the second art a person must posses. That is, and very slightly less important than the first necessity, one most have an imagination. You cannot anticipate the idea of something or the direction a certain, directionless moment might go if you cannot imagine it, thereby creating the path to which you can manifest something or simply allow another participating party will take, if they are willing.

3.    The last necessary ability is to follow through. (I have this is spades...err...not always good.)  However small the chance, it is important that the expressions of energy are actually rooted in the action behind the intention. That is the tricky part. This final stake in the concept is the gray line between sweet and sordid, between innocent and destructive.

I'm not talking about politicians having intercourse with strangers in public restrooms. We all, hopefully, have felt something. A new friend just "jives" or you have a compulsive urge to speak to a peer feeling something fun or energetic about your connection. I...would engage, make a joke, or be bluntly honest. Some, or most would just shake it off as weird. 

Perhaps you had a strange sensation to NOT take the escalator, but to go in the elevator...(BING) the doors open and a beautiful person looking specifically made for you is leaning on the railing with a smile. It’s your call. 

I've had insane energetic (movie-screen worthy) encounters with strange and completely unlikely old ladies in England, an awkward but sweet gentleman on a plane who turned out to be a kind and very famous blues player. Once on vacation with out kids, I was drawn to the children playing and met a wonderful mother who gave me some of the best parenting advice, although I have no children. I could go on for hours, but I won't. You're welcome.

Next key component to both recognizing energy and writing great prose that shake, shock, sicken or soothe a reader? Imagination.  
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Pretty funny. 

Energy: recognize, imagine and interact. Or...Don't.

I love living, learning and trusting my instincts.