Today we are going to explore one of the x factors in writing fiction, faith.
Writing, like any creative endeavour, involves uncertainty and requires an act of faith. Faith in our imagination, faith in ourselves, faith in the creative process and faith in the stories we want to tell.
When you sit down in front of a blank page there are no guarantees. If there were, half the fun would go out of it. Writing fiction is an act of discovery. If you want to write, you have to take a leap of faith and start writing, no matter how you feel about it.
When someone asked Australian author, Thomas Keneally, where his stories came from, he replied, “somewhere over the rainbow.” That’s where we writers need to go to access the power of our imagination, the true source of creativity.
As William James, the great psychologist, said, “our belief at the beginning of a doubtful undertaking is the one thing that ensures the successful outcome of the venture. To learn to believe is of primary importance. It is the basic factor of succeeding in any undertaking.”
Writing is a confidence game. If you think you can, or you think you can’t, you are probably right. You have to learn to believe in yourself, your story and your writing. Learning to believe is the magic ingredient. If you want to write the only failure is stopping.
To quote author Henry Miller, “every day we slaughter our finest impulses. That is why we get a heartache when we read those lines written by the hand of a master and recognise them as our own; as the tender shoots which we stifled because we lacked the faith to believe in our own powers, our own criterion of truth and beauty. Every man, when he gets quiet, when he becomes desperately honest with himself, is capable of uttering profound truths. We all derive from the same source. There is no mystery about the origin of things. We are all part of creation, all kings, all poets, all musicians; we have only to open up, only to discover what is already there.”
Roland Fishman created The Writers’ Studio in 1992. The Writers’ Studio runs live courses at their studio in Bronte, Sydney and online courses for all locations. Visit www.writerstudio.com.au for course information.
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