The Christmas classic It’s a Wonderful Life opens with a scene in heaven. Two angels are listening to prayers from Bedford Falls for George Bailey, who is in trouble. They call in a third angel, Clarence, who is being sent to earth to help George. If he succeeds in his mission, he’ll finally get his wings.

But before he is sent down, he needs to spend some time getting to know George. All he can see is a blur, so one of the other angels has to clear his vision because he doesn’t have his wings yet. And with the senior angel’s help, Clarence can see clearly so he can move forward with his mission.

There is a similar relationship between you and your readers. Your mission is to help them see the world more clearly. It doesn’t matter what you’re writing. The mission is ultimately the same: to help the reader get a clearer vision of life.

How is your vision? Do you see clearly? No one can believe your writing, believe the truth in it, unless you first believe it yourself.

The great novelist Charles Dickens wrote, “I have nothing else to tell; unless, indeed, I were to confess that no one can ever believe this narrative, in the reading, more than I have believed it in the writing.”

Is skill important? Yes. But skill is nothing without belief. When you believe in what you’re doing, you can take the reader anywhere you want to go.