Why Write?
Writing is therapeutic in so many ways: helping the author, the reader, or many times, even both. It opens up the mind, organizes one's thoughts, makes matters clearer, gives one a break from harsh reality, gives different perspectives, educates, entertains, transforms, motivates, and on and on. Studies have shown that reading “for fun” helps teens and young adults want to read more, improves language skills, escalates empathy and creativity, expands one's perspectives, and develops their decision-making abilities (by seeing possible different outcomes).1
Most often we start writing in our early teenage years in a journal, a journal which we desperately want no one to see, by the way. This penning of our feelings allows us to give vent to the high emotions, letting the steam out, reducing the anger or angst. By doing this we also organize our thoughts, giving them a structure we might not have seen before, and, thereby maybe, just maybe, help us solve the dilemma in which we found ourselves. Seeing how it helps teens, I think you can see how it can help adults also.
When researching a topic for one of our devotions, papers, books-whatever it may be, we should find ourselves needing to delve into all sides of that issue. By doing this, we allow our minds to see differing opinions and possibly find that we had not been thoroughly informed before now and had a wrong belief; maybe we discover the excuse someone had used to commit their offense, and while not agreeing with them, we now perceive their way of thinking.
Writing fiction allows us to create a world in which we believe our readers would like to be, experience, or learn about. Our work creates a world for our readers where they plunge into another life, or many lives, and experience this fictional world, maybe realizing that they don't have it as bad as it could be or even finding an answer to their prayer. We cause the readers to think beyond themselves, look into a world they would not have known without our words, give them sensations they are not actually feeling, but are sensing because they have jumped into the depths of our dialogue. At the same time, we might be introducing new words into their vocabulary, new perceptions they might never have heard before, new steps of judging outcomes through the various twists and turns of the story.
And as we're doing this for the reader, we're doing it for ourselves. While writing, we become immersed in our made-up world, feeling the emotions, seeing the scenery, sensing the wind relieving us on that hot prairie vastness. By stretching our minds for words, putting them into an enjoyable format, using just the right amount of descriptive magic, it all develops our minds and helps keep our acuity as keen as an obsidian knife.
No matter what it is we are writing, no matter the amount of words we use in our project, we must keep in mind that we can influence negatively as well as positively. So make it a habit to ask God to direct your word flow, where the positive will overwhelm any force of negative that might creep up.
©2023 Kelly L. Hartley
Kelly L. Hartley, a new author, writes Bible studies, devotions, fiction, and poems. She focuses on Bible contradictions for her “Spare Time Musings” on Substack. She’s a member of Ozark Chapter of American Christian Writers and Springfield Writer’s Guild. Social media: Substack, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram.
https://www.edutopia.org/article/benefits-reading-fun