Surrender to the Soul of the Story

Surrender is  a part of Indian  spirituality. It’s  the first lesson a disciple is taught when he enters spiritual life and trains under his spiritual master. The only advice given to the disciple by his Spiritual Master is  “Surrender”: go along with the flow of things.

Surrender in spiritual life simply means  bowing down to the inevitable, shedding  all desires  and expectations and just enjoying the experiences that   life/fate throws in our paths. The experience may be good, bad, sweet, bitter, small  or  big, but each experience  teaches the disciple something and adds to the disciple’s spiritual growth. The surrender  done  with utmost  humility and childlike innocence  hastens the disciple’s   spiritual  progress and all obstacles are overcome.

Before you all shake your heads and wonder whether this post is about spiritual life, I hasten to deny it.

Have you all realized that as writers  we  follow  the philosophy of surrender while working on our manuscripts.  When we start  writing our stories, don’t we surrender completely to it, bow down to the inevitable. The story  not only consumes us,  but chucks everything it has in our paths. Our characters throw  tantrums, our muse often plays truant, mental blocks hamper the progress of our stories, there is criticism galore from various sources. But,  like spiritual aspirants we continue on our chosen paths  with dreams of the published book in our eyes.

When we try to force the story or impose our rules upon it, it turns hostile and unnatural. The only way we can  do justice to  our stories  is by  surrendering completely to it: we should write the story with our heart,  pour our passion into it, be true to its theme, allow it to lead us where it wants to be taken, let the characters have the freedom to do what they want. There will be sufficient time later to summon the inner editor and spruce up the story and chop the undesirable parts.  

 Every story  has  a soul; it’s the essence of the story; the fragrance  emanating from the story that touches the readers’ souls. This soul to soul connection  is  responsible for its success. This is possible  only when we succumb all our senses to the story  without asking ourselves any questions.

Many times writers write with an eye on the commercial  market (at times I do too)  they forget to be true to the story, but start pandering to the current trend. The stories in their hearts  are suppressed by the stories that the market wants: stories that are the current flavours.  The essence of the story is diluted and the soul weakened. These stories  never achieve any amount of memorability. The  success they achieve is temporary.

Have you at any time surrendered to the soul of the story?  Given in completely to its pull  without asking questions?  If yes, where has it lead you? If no, where did you end up with the story? What are your views on it?