Trusting Our Writing Process.

Becoming A Writer

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Trusting Our Writing Process.

Episode 7 of Becoming A Writer podcast.

Rubina G Gomes

Mar 23, 2024

Transcript

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Hello, my writer friends! Rubina here. For our seventh conversation, we are going to talk about trusting our writing process.

When you have a dream, you get a map and a compass.

The map is your way toward your dream; the compass is your soul.

On the down left corner of the map is marked "You Are Here," and on the upper right corner is the treasure chest full of gold and diamonds and pearl and jewels.

Now, between these two points is no pathway. So, as common sense would have it, you try to go diagonally to the treasure. Very quickly, you realise walking this way is not working out.

This is when the compass comes in handy. The compass is calibrated to the treasure chest as your North Star. But instead of pointing towards it, the compass needle points you to the upper left corner of the map. "That's strange," you say to yourself softly, "I don't want to go in that direction. I need to head diagonally across."

So you keep trying to head straight for the treasure and fall short. It feels like you have been banging your head on the door, and it won't budge. Tired and disheartened, your eyes fall on the compass again. It's still pointing to the upper left corner of the map. Not knowing what else to do, you decide to try it.

As you follow the compass, it takes you for a ride all over the map. To high mountains and deep valleys. To building bridges and crossing rivers. There will also be times when you are back where you started from, and after a couple of times, you realise that you are not starting from the start again. You now have the knowledge and wisdom you have acquired along the way that is helping you have a rebirth of sorts.

There will be times when you'll doubt the compass. Is this thing working right? But since it came with your dream, it had to be correct. Then why isn't it taking you to your dream, that treasure chest? "No," you tell yourself and continue trusting the compass to lead the way.

When you feel you'll never find the treasure chest, your compass points you to a magical slingshot. "Take a seat," a cardboard poster suggests. "Might as well," you shrug and sit down. As you do so, the mechanism starts to roll its gears, and you can feel your seat being pulled back. You brace yourself by holding on to bars on the side, and before you know it, you are shot off into the sky. It threw you so up in the sky that you know in your heart that this is it; you'll die. There's no way you will stick this landing and survive this. And where the hell is it taking you? You have no clue.

You can feel yourself slow down and realise you have reached the highest point. It's time for you to fall down. As you rush back to meet the Earth, you remember your journey through the map. All the things you have done, all the things you have learnt. All for that dream of yours, that treasure chest. Well, at least you tried your best to achieve that dream. And as you close your eyes, readying yourself for the impact, you take a deep breath in and then out, surrendering all your thoughts, beliefs, pains, and hopes. And you hit the ground.

It takes you a few moments to realise that you're alive. You open your eyes and look at yourself and see that you're not hurt. Then you look around and find you're sitting atop your treasure chest. All the gold and diamonds and pearl and jewels surround you. You take out your map and see that on the treasure chest is written, "You Are Here."

This is what I imagine when I remind myself to trust the process.

Why do I remind myself to trust the process?

Because I have spent the first six years of my writing life not doing so, and it left me miserable. The moment I gave myself to my writing was when I started writing and enjoyed myself.

I have spent years trying to control and direct my writing journey. To make it go the way I deemed was the right way. And mind you, the ‘right’ way was really the way I heard others suggest.

I remember crying every day for three months while trying to outline my first novel. The toddler tantrum I experienced while looking for a regular job… I was having the same experience again. It broke my heart and annoyed my ego to be unable to write the novel I desperately wanted. I could see the plot in my head but it was coming out gibberish on paper. “I call myself a writer, and I can’t even write one sensible sentence,” I said to myself often during that time.

Eventually, I gave up on my novel. But thankfully, I didn’t give up on the dream of writing one.

Every writer I found online suggested plotting my novel before I wrote the first draft. Why? So that I knew where my story was heading and what all the characters were doing.

It took me another year of healing and self-improvement to realise that my way of writing is precisely how I read a novel or watch a movie – not knowing what’s going to happen next but anticipating it eagerly.

“I am Pantser! A discovery writer!” I finally realised.

After digging into this area of Writing, I gave myself a chance to try it out. And it worked! Now, I can’t stop writing. Now every writing session is exciting because I don’t know who or what or which twist will turn up.

I now realise that writing is all about surrendering – it’s about letting the words unfold to you as you write.

When I say or hear someone say, “Trust the process,” I know what it means for me -

Trust The Process = (Self-Belief + Hope + Action in the right direction) x Love.

Self-belief means that you believe in yourself in every aspect of your life and your writing. You believe you have what it takes and can write that book.

Hope means that no matter how the situation looks in the present, you believe that everything will work out at the right time. It means remembering that things don't happen to you; they happen FOR you.

Now, you may have self-belief and hope. But if you don't take action in the right direction, it all goes to waste. Action is what will bring your dreams closer to you. You don’t need to know the whole road ahead. Just follow the compass of your soul and see what it suggests you to do.

And finally, Love.

If you don't love what you're doing, then you're missing out on your writing, and your writing is missing out on you. You must write for the sake of writing itself. The fame, success, and adoration you hope for will be the bonuses you receive for loving your writing wholeheartedly.

Trusting the process is not about the results. Trusting the process is about trusting the process. The results will effortlessly fall into your lap when done with the right intentions. Or you'll fall into its lap.

Well, that's it for today. Next time we meet, we'll talk about why it is important that we write for ourselves first.

Until then, keep writing, my friend.