I originally posted the following for the Word Pirates, but since I still more or less agree with it, I decided to post it here as well. You can also read about the wine tasting I did this weekend over at my Petaluma blog.

Lately I’ve been thinking that I should have more established ideas about the function of creative writing. Is it to entertain? Communicate? Recreate emotions? All of the above? Chekov thought that the writer serves as an observer of life. Is that what I’m doing? Virginia Woolf thought that writing illuminated the otherwise isolated subjective experience. Do I agree?

Word Pirates is the closest thing I have to my own ideas about writing. Co-founder Marcia and I generally agree on these issues. For example, we both think that writing shouldn’t be boring. That sounds like a no-brainer, maybe, but you would be shocked by how much is written with no particular thought about being entertaining. Today’s writers are fighting tremendous odds–TV, Internet, short attention spans, et. all. They have to grab the reader right away and hold on tight.

Or, we both agree that writing should clearly say something. We want stories, we want a point. We aren’t the type of readers who can slough through a bunch of experimental poetry and feel like we got something out of it. And there are other things: We think short stories should be short, that essays should not be naval gazing, that pop culture is actually important, and that humor is awesome.

As for the deeper aesthetic meaning of art, I don’t think Word Pirates has gotten there yet. However, I do think writing, particularly creative writing, serves several purposes. Writing:

1. Puts you in the head of an individual in a way that nothing else can. It bridges culture gaps, age differences, and even death. After all, you are literally reading someone else’s thoughts. As such, it teaches you ways of thinking that you would never be able to understand without it. I think you could read the entire history of China and still not understand a particular kind of Chinese thinking the way one single Lu Hsun story could teach you.
2. Serves as a critique of the world around us. Nothing gets at the problems of our culture and government like art can. The writer is someone who explores the emotional, intellectual, and spiritual impacts of our social systems, which is an essential and important role.
3. Connects us to each other. Often this comes in emotional connection. You’re reading along, and then suddenly you realize that a character is describing an emotion that you believed only you had experienced. It’s like finding a friend who truly understands you. You are filled with amazement; you feel less alone. But writing also inspires connection through everything from new ideas, innovative language use, and an entertaining story. Language is communication, and communication is what binds people together. Fiction writing is communication distilled down to get at the places where language fails us–those unturned stones of the mind that we know and don’t know about at the same time.

I think that this is my basic opinion of why creative writing is important. But I could be leaving something out. If so, what?