Ideating: Writing to Explore Our True Form

Contributed by Weegee Sachtjen

"Everybody walks past a thousand story ideas every day. The good writers are the ones who see five or six of them. Most people don’t see any." – Orson Scott Card

It's been around for over 400 years, but I recently stumbled upon a word that I think embodies the creative writing process to a "T".

i·de·ate
ˈīdēˌāt/
verb
    form an idea of; imagine or conceive.
    form ideas; think.

Ideate comes from the Greek verb, idein, which means to see. The sight-insight connection of the idea and ideal comes from the clever Greek philosopher Plato.

He believed that a true philosopher can see the authentic nature of things and see their true form, their ideal form.

A friend of mine once said that we write, "not to explain the world but to explore it."

Writing is about imagining what could be between uncommon events. It's about seeing a vague outline of drama in the everyday interactions between neighbours. It is finding the common denominator in our lives.

It takes a bit of curiosity. A sense of wonder. An inquisitive mind.

It takes looking beneath our surface layers to our true form, our ideal form.

And writing from there.

"Learn as much by writing as by reading." Lord Acton