Why Write Fiction?

A story pounds in your skull, begging to be set free…

Romanticism aside, that does happen. Sometimes. But it's a lot more often that someone wakes up with a random scene in his head that refuses to go away (as occurred with Mary Shelley for Frankenstein) or that the author refuses to let vanish (like Stephenie Meyer for Twilight). The writer then has to pull a story out of that scene. (As a note, the writer will likely refer to it as "the" story from the scene, rather than "a," and may be sensitive to the implied cliché if you call it "a.")

Personality can also induce someone to start a story. Maybe someone just likes writing and decides to mimic something he just read. Or a reader realizes with a jolt that he can write better than a certain story, so he decides to do it. In my personal case, I realized there was something I wanted to read—Christian sci-fi—and I couldn't find it, so I decided to write it. (That novel, written from ages 14 to 17, has been scrapped, but I'm still writing.)

I'm well aware that some people consider fiction useless, or at least don't see its practicality and value. Of the four members of my family, I'm the only one who greatly enjoys fiction, particularly when it starts getting fantastic (as in, entering the fantasy and science fiction realms). For someone who just wants to learn about airplanes, reading a non-fiction book on airplanes will be the easiest way for him to learn.

But a lot of people don't want to be taught. Therefore, they go for that fiction novel… that surreptitiously is teaching them something. If the book's well-written and the writer did his research, it might be details about how a lawyer becomes a judge, or that blueberries are a summer fruit (which could even be in a fantasy novel).

Characters' actions and the consequences quietly—or not so quietly—declare proper behavior or common idealizations of character. Ever noticed how almost every single heroine you can find is a spitfire, and usually slender and gorgeous? How fathers tend to be foolish idiots or tyrants? How Harry and friends in J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter books are rewarded for breaking the rules since their reasons were good? That some stories assume the romantic couple will sleep together, some that they won't; some don't so much as consider homosexuality an option, and some treat bisexuality as normal?

For each of those life lessons I named, I could name a fantasy novel that teaches them. But the good ones don't discourse; rather, they provide examples so a reader has to discern what is being taught. In many ways, particularly to the non-analytical reader, fiction can be much more dangerous than non-fiction, since such a reader is unaware of the lessons being poured into his brain by example.

Some people don't care about that ability and only want to tell a story. That's their prerogative. But every writer should be aware that he will teach something in his story, be it his direct intent or not. A writer's beliefs will affect his writing, regardless of if his conscious awareness of it. Children learn from what their parents do more than what they say; fiction teaches in much the same way.

So, write fiction to tell a story, write it to unobtrusively teach, write it so others have certain content to read—but know your reasons, and remember them.