Instinct vs. Intellect

I once heard a very famous plotting/story guru touting the notion that writers should never rely on instinct, but should take a more objective, intellectual approach to their work (I'm paraphrasing, but that was the gist.) Instinct, he said, is really nothing more than the sum total of everything we've ever read or seen in movies, and will therefore lead us to rely on cliched and unoriginal thinking.

Well, I agree that during the editing/revision process, we do need to switch from our right-brained creativity to a more left-brained, critical mode, and yes, we need to think "outside the box" to use a truly clichéd term. But I SO disagree that we should ignore our instincts when writing that first draft.

Something happened yesterday that illustrates the point I want to make. My husband and I were getting on the turnpike through the sunpass lane, and realized suddenly that the car ahead of us had come to a full stop and was just sitting there – waiting for what, I don't know. I'm sure he didn't have a sunpass and didn't know what to do. Anyway, my husband had to hit the brakes, and since the road was wet we fishtailed a bit. Without even realizing he did it, hubby thrust a hand out in front of me to hold me in my seat. Pure instinct. Intellect might have told him that I was wearing my seatbelt and wouldn't have been thrown forward into the dashboard, but his instinct warned of danger and urged him to protect.

It left me with a warm feeling that lasted all day. My hero! But here's my point. Instinct reaches deep down to what is most important to us at the core of who we are. It's our humanity, when you strip away all the outer trappings that society tells us we need. It's what inspires us to feel, to be spontaneous, to love. Maybe I was missing the plotting guru's point, but I do know that when a writer over-intellectualizes and over-perfects their story, they run the risk of losing the spontaneity of the characters, the depth of the emotions, and the magic that reaches into a reader's deepest core, grabs their heart, and leaves them sighing at the end.

So don't be afraid of your instincts. Embrace them. They're you at your most honest.