A while back I met an astute woman named Amiee who was doing work on a documentary. We talked about writing in romance books and then the purpose of writing in general. I came to realise that a lot of people look at it is as pure escapism, and some writers only write to get away from this world. If that's the case then is there no other point to writing?
I know from some of the wonderful people in my life and from my own experiences with writing that many people know literature is far richer than that, so this made me want to share what other purposes I believe story telling has held, throughout history and in times today, and what in particular I use to give my writing (I hope) value.
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reading and writing stories has always been imperative in the development of morals in youth. Fables and fairy stories, though sometimes grizzly, were often intended that way to teach a lesson. Example: in Sleeping Beauty originally she was raped and only woke from her deep sleep after giving birth. Not the happiest story, but it was there to teach young girls that they can't always afford to be innocent and must be careful and aware of the world around them, they can not spend their youth 'asleep.'
These are the skills we're taught in school. Finding these messages are important to our cultural development. When we look at some texts we search for themes, messages and motifs. What is the author trying to say?
In my own work I try to communicate questions I have about this world and bring my readers around to question some of the things they might have taken for granted, but in other matters I also use them as tools for myself and my own development, and I hope that by doing so I'm creating further tools for others. I look at exploring new character types, and different methods of being, to gain an understanding of how other humans might think and to explore how I myself as a person would like to develop. I try not to live through my characters or make any single character exactly like myself because I want to explore aspects of personality that I don't or haven't explored in the real world.
For that reason, though I love escapism and the sheer beauty and pleasure that comes from reading and writing, I hope most people realise that such things only scratch the surface of what writing can do.
