I love story!
Tweet this: Why Write Fiction?
By DiAnn Mills
I’m often posed the questions:
“Why fiction when you could be writing nonfiction?”
“If you feel writing is a ministry, then why are you putting your time and effort into a story?”
“A real Christian would be writing something with real sustenance, not fiction.”
I used to swallow my anger with those questions and quickly compose a gracious response that sounded like I was playing defense for a losing team.
Not any more. I’m proud of what I do. After years of following my passion for communicating the written word through story, I simply term the individual questioning my life’s work as uninformed. These people mean well. Some of them think entertainment is a waste. After all, isn’t nonfiction the means by which people learn how to live life to its fullest and better themselves?
Not necessarily.
How many abused women purchase books about how to stop a man from beating them? Do those women reach for information on a retailer’s shelf about abused victim’s legal rights, or counseling, or finding courage in the midst of abuse?
How many victims of human trafficking find freedom by asking their captor to buy them a book about overcoming trust issues or how to escape an inappropriate relationship?
How many addictions were resolved by forcing the sufferer to read a book on the statistics of US drug use? Or the book of Job in the Bible?
How many marriages were saved because a woman shoved a book into her husband’s face about how to win back an unfaithful husband?
I think you get the picture. It’s unlikely any of the above examples found solace, peace, answers, escape, or courage in a nonfiction book because they were either too frightened to be found reading it, or they simply weren’t interested. But that victim could read a novel about abuse, human trafficking, an addiction, or a failing marriage and learn how someone changed and grew into a better person. First and foremost, a novel entertains. But story also provides hope and inspires the reader to make needed changes. The writer plants the seeds of change and subtlety challengers the reader to grow beyond her own world.
Have you read a novel and found yourself a better person?
Tweet this: Why Write Fiction?
