A mirror image

I often tell my writing students that writing is like holding a mirror up to the world and reporting on what you see.
Suppose you are sitting in a classroom with 25 or 30 other people. You are sitting at tables two or three rows across and two or three rows back. You are all facing the front of the room where there is a large mirror - large enough that you can see images in it, no matter where you are sitting.
In other words, you are all seeing the same thing only from a different angle.
That's exactly what writers do.