Writing Fiction To Make A Difference In The World

I feel we need at least two kinds of fiction—Escape Fiction and Engage Fiction.

Escape takes us out of ourselves so we can relax; Engage fills us up so we can take action.

In my previous post, Do Creative Writers Have Social “Responsibilities”?, I said:

“’I’m not trying to advocate some sort of sterile, moralistic fiction. We still need a damn good read and we don’t need a book telling us how to live our lives. Still… Showing the reader that even the worst conditions can hold some promise for improvement, even if the characters fail miserably to attain that promise, is, to me, a job that fiction writers should always be working to master.’

“Really, are people who have the knack of creativity here only to copy reality?

“What are the ‘moral’ or ‘ethical’ opportunities in a creative work?

“What is the creative person’s ‘responsibility’ to society?”

My book, Notes from An Alien, attempts to relate actionable ideas about working toward Global Peace in the context of a story best called a Documentary Novel (my thanks to Jane Watson for telling me the book’s proper genre:-).

So, a work of fiction has the power to induce action in our world; hopefully, to improve it.

Can action done in our world to improve it have the power to inspire creative writers to produce socially-responsive fiction?

Let’s try an experiment…

Natalie Warne is a young woman who, “[w]hen she was 17,… learned about the Invisible Children Project—a campaign to rescue Ugandan children from Joseph Kony’s child armies. As an intern for Invisible Children, she led a nation-wide campaign for the project.  She successfully got the campaign featured on the Oprah Winfrey show, a victory that dramatically raised the profile of the movement.”

That description alone could inspire a few writers to create a story.

Try this video of Natalie, charged with youthful determination, glowing with the promise of dedicated service to humanity. After you watch it, if you were infused with inspiration that could power a fictional piece, please share your feelings in the comments :-)

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