Why do I write fiction?
Once upon a time I considered myself a non-fiction writer exclusively because I didn’t think I had the imagination to write fiction. Eventually my writer friends’s encouragement wore down my fear, and I gave writing fiction a try.
Writing fiction was my deep-down secret dream.
Why? Because I believe in the power of a well-told story whether it be through song, dance, art, or books. Today I’m speaking about books. I’ve witnessed how something I read in a novel made sit up, think, and decide to do something different.
Maybe you’ve experienced this, too? Have you ever been at a point in your life where you couldn’t look at another self-help book or biography? Not that they’re bad, that’s not what I’m saying. I’ve experienced great blessing in my life from reading them but there came a time when I didn’t need someone telling me what I should do. I couldn’t listen to another success story when my own life was a train wreck. I didn’t want to talk about God.
Escape. That’s what I wanted—a place to hunker down and forget my troubles and be entertained. Run away to a foreign place and walk alongside a protagonist who I could relate to.
I discovered this in a novel about an assassin, who was down and out. She didn’t care about anything or anyone, she’d given up and she wasn’t about to get up off the roof where she lay. Eventually someone comes to help her rise, to face her demons, and live.
This was a secular story but God used that book to give me a powerful message—one that I still think about today, years later. I write fiction because there is someone out there who can’t face another Christian living book because it’s like rubbing salt in the wound. Or they’re mad at God or don’t know God—all they’ve seen is hypocrisy in believers. Perhaps there’s a teen who needs a message of hope but they aren’t into Christian fiction. The list goes on.
People are why I write fiction—to offer a good clean message of hope, a little mini-vacation from their troubles, some wholesome entertainment. Maybe it will change someone’s life in a positive way. Perhaps it will inspire them to live differently, to promote a positive change in their life. Maybe it will help them get up from their rooftop, or couch, or cave, where they’re hiding from the world. Because the world needs them. I don’t know who my stories will connect with and that’s okay. My job is to write the narrative and leave the results to God.
I believe in the power of #STORY. It can change the world.