Do you want a character to just put his finger on his forehead, and pluck out the name of the person who had committed the murder? No. That won't go over well with your readers, or push your plot forward. What I will be discussing in this blog is how to delve into your character's unconscious mind, write in deep POV, and allow your character to develop his intuition. Whether it’s the killer, the cop, the forensic psychiatrist, or any character, your reader wants to know the origins of his thoughts and feelings.
Characters should not automatically become psychic for the current story. Their abilities need to be flushed out in backstory, or it won't be believable. Your characters need to have used their intuition to solve some of their personal issues prior to the story’s beginning. If you're a plotter like me, you'll be writing character bios before you begin your
novel. Include this kind of information.
When you're writing the scene in which you want to have your character use psychic ability, you need to ground yourself first. Yes, in a sense, you're developing your own intuition in order to create the same in your character. Keep your feet crossed at the ankles, do some deep breathing, and focus. Get rid of all distractions: the phone, social media, the washer and dryer beeping. Focus intently on the scene so that you see it happening before your eyes.
It's as if you're in a daydream. Put your character into that daydream. What is he seeing? What is he smelling? What is he hearing? Are what he’s seeing, smelling, and hearing actually in the scene, or are the sensual clues coming from his mind? Is he using these sensory clues to put the facts of the case together? If the sensory clues are coming from his mind, he’s using his psychic abilities or intuition. Notice, I didn’t say imagination. Imagination and intuition are two different things.
Cops call it a hunch. Women, call it women's intuition. Parents get feelings in their gut about their children, especially when they're in trouble. These are all forms of psychic intuition in different stages of development. We're all capable of it, but many of us don't want to accept it. It could be scary to get an idea about something or a forewarning that an event is going to happen when it just pops into our mind. The lack of control over these thoughts is what pushes people back into denial.
I'll talk about the two character's in my novels who are at different stages in their psychic development. In GEMINI, my debut novel, to be released by Black Opal Books in the spring, Forensic Psychiatrist, Dr. John Trenton has been psychic and clairvoyant since he was a toddler. This means he can use the five psychic senses that are mates to the mundane ones. When Trenton profiles, he does the work with the forensics, scientific and medical data, as well as with his psychic senses, and Max, his spirit guide, gives confirmation. Trenton just doesn't just sit still while the solution pops out of his brain.
In my WIP, ARIES, Detective Samantha Wright is first learning how to control her psychic ability. She's at the point where she's not trusting her intuition, and her spirit guide, Dara, makes words blurt out of her mouth unexpectedly. When she learns how to trust, she uses her newfound ability to lead her in the right direction in order to solve a cold case.
Both Dr. Trenton and Samantha Wright use their psychic intuition to assist in deciphering leads, and in analyzing the data. Having a character use their psychic abilities does not cut down their work or minimize your plot. On the contrary. Your characters become more enriched and dimensional, and can do more.
Ronnie Allen is a NYC transplant to rural Central Florida. In addition to her thirty-three year teaching career in NYC, she has had a practice in New York as a Holistic Health practitioner. Ronnie holds certifications in many alternative therapies and a Ph.D. in Parapsychic Sciences from the American Institute of Holistic Theology. Presently, she is writing the “Sign Behind The Crime” series, which includes within the plots, psychic, metaphysical, alternative therapy- and let’s not omit, spicy romantic, elements. Ronnie is a member of RWA and ITW. Her web site is www.ronnieallennovel.com, where you could read her blogs and learn more about GEMINI and ARIES.
About GEMINI
GEMINI is a present day psychological thriller set in NYC and rural Central Florida. Forensic Psychiatrist, Dr. John Trenton works in a NYC hospital for the criminally insane and with the NYPD as a profiler. When stripper-by-night, school-psychologist-by-day Barbara Montgomery is dumped in his lap for a seventy-two hour observation period, he discovers during his testing, that she is a psychopathic, predatory murderer. She escapes from custody, wreaking havoc in NYC, and massacres Trenton’s NYPD team. Her threat becomes even more intimate when she sneaks down to Florida and attempts to kill his wife and unborn child.
4 comments:
Very informative and useful information, Ronnie. Thanks for sharing your insights.
Thank you Mikki and thanks for stopping by! I feel honored that I was asked to write the blog. I love weaving intuitive abilities into my novels. In Aries it adds to the conflict within the heroine, Samantha Wright.
You're so right about intuition and being afraid to follow it. The older I get, the more likely I am to follow that "sense" of something, but it took me a while to get here. Great article, Ronnie.
The more successful you are when the intuition comes and you're correct as to what you're feeling, the abilities will get stronger with practice. Thanks for responding, Lisa!
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