Issues of Trust

Continuation of the series "How Do You Write Novels?"... 

#5.      Trust yourself.

Again, this is something a lot of writers struggle with. We know where we want the story to go, and we really want to force it—but that’s never a good idea. Don’t force the story to go where you want it to go. Trust that the story knows where it wants to go, and that somewhere deep down, you know it too.

Trust your words; trust your mind to know where you want the story to go. Don’t force the story away from where it wants to go. Immerse yourself within it, become the characters, live within your world, and let the creative juices flow.

Take it from me: getting to this point takes some time and effort, but once you get to where you can trust your subconscious over your conscious mind, your writing will benefit. Everything starts to flow more smoothly, things make sense without you even trying, and the plot simply starts to fall into place.

Okay, maybe not so simply. But you know what I mean.

Trust is a big issue for a lot of people. I’ve been there. It’s not fun to always second guess yourself, and it usually ends with the story suffering.

So trust me: trusting yourself is a good thing. Just let go. Don’t try to be in control, because really, you never were. The story’s going to go where it wants to go, whether you’re the vessel to get it there or not.

If you don’t write it the way it wants to be written, it’ll find someone who will.

I hope you all are enjoying this series! It’s been a lot of fun for me to write, and it’s even been eye-opening for me. Some of the things I’m telling you to do are things I didn’t even realize I was doing until I sat down and really thought about it.

Stay tuned for Monday's post, which I promise I will actually do this time!

{Rani Amber}