Why Writing is Important

As a lover of words, and as an independently published author, I have been criticized for my choice of work.

Not my "day" job, mind you, my very passion. This has not just come from people that don't know me, but people who have been around me for many years.

I have received the comments and questions including the following:

Writing isn't hard.
Novels aren't important.
Who has the time to read?
And my favorite: That's a degree program?

People don't seem to understand my choice to study what I love and to continue to pursue my dreams of readers falling in love with my worlds and characters.
But they are quick to support and appreciate the studies and careers of Doctors, Nurses, Lawyers, Engineers. Why the stigma around writing and the creative arts? Heck, I've even seen more support for friends who are photography students than for writing!

For me, and many of my friends, writing is not just a hobby, or even a passion, it is a release. It is escapism at it's finest, and it is therapeutic. Being able to express yourself in a creative outlet aids your understanding of yourself, and the world around you.

Often writers are introverts, or at the very least are observers of the world around them. They often understand more of the human condition than they realize. Then through their writing, they help readers to also gain understanding of themselves and the world around them.

Reading a character going through something life altering can help a child with her parent's divorce, or the little boy being bullied on the school yard can find an example of how to be brave. A child or adult facing a disability gets to imagine the sensation of running, or even flying.

Maybe the most important feeling of all may be found between the pages of books:
Hope.

So maybe we authors aren't performing surgeries, or designing a building that will offer hundreds of new job opportunities, or even putting away murders for life.

I contest we are doing something much bigger than those.
We are instigators of imagination, writers of wrongs, and bringers of hope.

Writing isn't useless. It is vital to our species continuation. It is beautiful, necessary, and something to be shared for many generations to come.