On trusting the process

When I first started writing I heard some writers talk about, “TRUSTING THE PROCESS” and wondered what it meant. Wasn’t the process dictated by the writers?

It took me a while to realize that sometimes it is hard to know how our mind puts a story together: not only does it vary from person to person, but also from novel to novel. For my first two books, I wrote more or less what I knew about, and it was a linear process of going from point A to B and then to C. My third book, Keeping Corner, was different and I found it hard to write it in a straight, simple way.

Keeping Corner is historical fiction set in the India of 1918-1919, based on the life of my great aunt who was a child widow. My parents told me about her life and about other widows’ lives, but I wanted to anchor my story in the time and place to make it come alive. I did extensive research on the political and cultural changes taking place at the time in India and particularly in the state of Gujarat where my story is set. I realized that I had two parallel stories running side by side in my mind and I had to weave them together so that it became one indivisible tale. I went back and forth in the story and it took me a long time to finish it.

Right now, I am trying to write a book about a subject and a place that I know little about, but have  a huge interest in. It has been a very challenging and sometimes frustrating experience. It would be easy to abandon this project and go on to write something I know, but I am determined to do it because once I finish I will have grown as a writer. I don’t know how to do it, but as I put words down, I will discover a process or maybe I will stumble upon it. Once I finish the first draft I will probably have to tweak it, layer it, and maybe even change the point of view or rewrite it.

I have no clue how this project will turn out, but I have to  “TRUST THE PROCESS” and proceed.