None of us knows what the future holds. Writing fiction is one way to grow more comfortable with the uncertainties of life.

One of the most common arguments against reading fiction (and especially writing it!) that you’ll hear goes something like this:

• What is the point? Isn’t the real world interesting enough?
• Fiction is just escapism. Live your life.
• Fiction has no real value. It’s pure distraction from real problems and issues.

Now, I don’t think any writer (or person who understands the value and importance of story to human nature and to human beings) thinks that we should lose ourselves completely in fiction and devote our lives entirely to it.

That said, it  saddens me when people make comments like those above. Fiction does SO MUCH for us as people who live and move and contribute to the real world.

For one, writing increases our capacity to empathize…