A Writer’s Quest
“To leap across an abyss, one is better served by faith than doubt.” -William James
This quote makes me wonder how we give our readers the faith that together we will make the leap or the journey from the beginning to the end of the story. Is it inspiration that fans the flames of faith? Is it consistency? Is it giving them a familiar plan but a good plan?
It really could be all of these. Joseph Campbell believed that there had to be a clear journey, and that journey included Carl Jung’s archetypes. E. E. Cummings believed that feeling can come across in poetry even when it didn’t “obey” traditional forms. And from the writer’s perspective, Julia Cameron believes that we, as writers, need to journal in order to grow our faith throughout the writing process.
The thing is, as writers, we’re responsible for two faiths: our own and our readers’. Carrying our own faith can be quite the load on its own. What we learn is that if you tell a story well enough, faith carries the reader through the abyss. And how do you tell a story well enough? Well, you find what you have to say and say it in a way that makes people want to listen. The tricky part is remembering what it is you want to say through the entire writing process.
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