Writing and the Creative Life: “Believing is seeing”

A twist on the old saying, “Seeing is believing.”

As writers, we do everything we can to enable our characters to come to life. Whether it’s questionnaires, biographies, interviews, monologues, anything we can do to engage our characters and immerse ourselves in their lives can help us eventually to hear their voices… and have them lead us into and through the story.

In this regard, we can invert the old saying “seeing is believing” to “believing is seeing.” That is, if we believe our characters exist in their own unique story universe, then we can eventually see them.

I’m reminded of an observation made by the French author Jules Renard:

“The story I am writing exists, written in absolutely perfect fashion, some place, in the air. All I must do is find it, and copy it.”

This belief can be the foundation of everything else involved in the process of creating a story.

The story universe exists.
The characters exists.
Their personal histories exist.
Their interpersonal relationships exist.
Their intrapersonal dynamics exist.