Young Writers Society

Hi! I'm doing a research paper on the effect of fiction, and I decided that there was nowhere better to ask than YWS. This goes for any sort of fiction, not just books. Thanks!

1. How has fiction impacted your life?

2. Has fiction ever helped you solve a problem, or created one?

3. Why did you decide to start writing fiction?

Thanks!

Oooh this seems interesting!

1. How has fiction impacted your life?

Wow, okay so fiction has had a HUGE impact on my life, and probably shaped it a lot too. There were a lot of problems in my life when I was young and on top of that I was an only child. So I turned to books as a form of escapism. Fiction allowed me to go places, meet people and do things that I normally couldn't in real life. It expanded my living experience beyond what I already had.

2. Has fiction ever helped you solve a problem, or created one?

Oooh, good one! Well, fiction for me hasn't helped for a particular problem, but rather helped me be able to handle or deal with problems in general. They've also helped me avoid problems by making me more aware to sensitive issues in community and also by helping me understand people better. I think that's one of the great things about fiction, it just helps you become so much more aware.

I guess fiction has caused a couple of problems. My mum always tells me that I'm somewhere else, which is true my head is always inside a book even when I'm not there. I think also with fiction is that it leaves me with almost a dissatisfaction for the real world. Knowing I'll never meet an elf, ride in a spaceship to mars, or have magic, it does get a little depressing.

3. Why did you decide to start writing fiction?

I guess because I just had so many ideas I had to turn them into something! I love the feeling of being able to create a world, or society of my own. Even in realistic fiction as an author you have unprecedented control over what can and cannot happen. I love cheating characters and exploring people, finding out how they react to things, and developing them. Fiction allows me to explore and experiment with cause and effect by using different plots, settings and characters. Like reading fiction, I feel like writing it helps me to learn and become more aware.

I hope this helped somewhat! Good luck with your essay!

@silverlock Thank you so much!

No worries

How has fiction impacted your life?
Ahah, interesting one. As a philosopher, I'd say fiction is everything. Humans are beautifully and dangerously creative critters. It fascinates me how we absorb information and use it to create things, ideas, personas, even our memories change over time, and we alter our perceptions based on our prejudices.

Talking strictly of literature and fiction, I would say that it's as real to me as anything else, because it's still something I perceive and use to create and alter all the things that a normal memory would.

Has fiction ever helped you solve a problem, or created one?

Most definitely. The thing I love about fiction is that it gives me a chance to explore ideas in a safe environment. Let's say... coping with bullying, as a generic example. Take a character who is secretly a wizard living in a normal world, who has to overcome bullying. The names and scenarios used are completely fictional, but the emotions are the same, and walking alongside this character who learns to find confidence in themselves for who they are matters.

The scenario is different and completely separate from the reader, so there aren't any memories or scars that can be irritated by it- but the experience and the journey is something shared.

For me, being able to take real issues and put them into a fantasy context helps me to solve so many problems because I can look at them much more rationally and better explore them when the scenario isn't affected by my own inhibitions or prejudices.

As for creating problems- quite a few. I would say the hardest thing is the loneliness that can be caused when you leave a fictional environment and step back into the real world. Even if you've just saved the world, when you go down to join your family for dinner, it doesn't mean a thing, and when your imaginary friend dies, you're not allowed to cry for them. It's hard, and sometimes it really sucks.

Why did you decide to start writing fiction?

I didn't. It just kind of happened =p Creativity is kind of compulsive to me. Some random grown up put a pencil in my hand, taught me how to draw a few letters, and the words just kind of wrote themselves.

Thank you @Tenyo!

Oh wait! I forgot to give you guys cookies!

For @Silverlock:

For @Tenyo:

(I promised cookies to anyone who answered the survey).