My Understanding of Felt-sense

In the article “Understanding Composing” by Sondra Perl, she points out three aspects: felt-sense, retrospective and projective. In my opinion, the most important aspect for me is “felt-sense”. As Eugene Gendlin, a philosopher at the University of Chicago, explains, “the soft underbelly of thought...It is felt in the body, yet it has meanings. It is body and mind before they are split apart.” Felt-sense is also called “inner voice”, and it is always within us. Although we can’t come up ideas and put them into an essay immediately while we write, we already have an image or key words in our mind that can be related to the topic. Felt-sense is the basic and first step to write. We need to understand the topic before we write, and use brainstorm to relate our own personal experience. 

I use “felt-sense” a lot of times when I am writing. Every time I get a new topic, I don’ get a pen and write at once. Instead, I read the topic more than three times in order to help myself really understand the main point of the topic. Then I will do brainstorm to think about my own experience or things that happen around me and can be related to this topic. I may have an image about what am I going to write, or I can write down some key words that come up in my mind. After doing these preparations, I start to write. Sometimes I may get stuck while I’m writing, so I will reread what I wrote and pick up the key words. After refreshing my mind, I will keep writing until I am done. Felt sense is a helpful way for me to write, and I will keep using this strategy in the future.