I came across an article by author Alma Alexander that I had saved from 2017, a time when I was writing a lot more fiction that I do now. Here’s what she had to say about the value of fiction:

Yes, we all know it’s all a lie. But fiction is an incredibly important medium for getting the truth out there – even when you pretend that it only happens to other people, or to people who cannot exist or will never be real.
~Alma Alexander

Fiction is so many things:

• entertainment
• escape
• learning about
  • places
  • things
  • people
  • science
  • relationships
  • imagination
• preparation for
  • empathy
  • sympathy
  • taking action
  • living
• realizing there are other options available
• traveling when I can’t go anywhere
• what is real and what is a lie
• there are no coincidences
• there is a God Almighty

Even if the story is made up, my world-and-life view comes through the words on the page. I have found that writing or telling a story is very self-revealing, not on purpose, but because it comes out through the person that you are—your DNA, your experiences, your beliefs, and your attitudes.

When reading, I choose:

• which character to identify with
• the one I hope I never am
• how I would handle a situation differently
• what it is I really believe even if it is different than what is written

So, writers, keep making up stories.

Readers, keep entering into a fantasy world.

Live vicariously for a little while. That’s how we learn.

After you’ve read for a little while, here’s some music to imagine by.