The Need For Fiction Writers

We all learned the reasons for writing when we were in elementary school. I can still hear my English teacher's voice telling me to choose between informing, persuading, and entertaining my audience. But what if I told you there is an objective need that all good fiction writers address? A calling that demands attention?

So what is it? 

First, think about some of the most beloved books (or series) in our time. To name a few, The Lord Of The Rings, The Chronicles of Narnia, Harry Potter, and and The Hunger Games. 

We are awestruck by the world of Middle Earth, enchanted by the magic wardrobe, sucked into daydreams about Hogsmeade, and torn apart by the mutts in the arena. And If you're anything like me, these stories felt so real that the pages melted away your hands and left you standing in the world of the characters, elves singing, dragons thundering, crowd cheering. 

The thing that makes good fiction writers good is that they show us the desires in our own world by reflecting them in another. 

I know, I know. Sounds crazy, right? But it's true. 

We all want something more out of our lives. We are unsettled with being settled. We all desire some new and shiny reality full of adventure, danger, and magic. But even then, if we did live in some fantasy world, that would be our normal. We wouldn't care about dragons or spells or adventures if we encountered them every day. 

As a very wise man (J. R. R. Tolkien) once said, "History often resembles myth, because they are both ultimately of the same stuff" (Tolkien, 1947).

Good writing re-incites our human longings and leads us back to the realization that our world is just as fantastical as any other. Earth is so diverse and weird and that's what fiction is supposed to show us this. 

I mean, come on guys, giraffes exist. That's pretty nuts. 

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Works Cited:

Tolkien, J. R. R. (1947). On Fairy Stories. ILAS 2350 - University of Houston. Retrieved

February 6, 2024, from https://uh.edu/fdis/_taylor-dev/readings/tolkien.html