For more than two thousand years people have insisted that reading fiction is good for you. Aristotle claimed that poetry—he meant the epics of Homer and the tragedies of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, which we would now call fiction—is a more serious business than history. History, he argued, tells us only what has happened, whereas fiction tells us what can happen, which can stretch our moral imaginations and give us insights into ourselves and other people. This is a strong argument for schools to continue to focus on the literary arts, not just history, science, and social studies.

But is the idea of fiction being good for you merely wishful thinking? The members of a small research group in Toronto—Maja Djikic, Raymond Mar, and I—have been working on the problem. We have turned the idea into questions. In what ways might reading fiction be good for you? If it is good for you, why would this be? And what is the psychological function of art generally?

Through a series of studies, we have discovered that fiction at its best isn’t just enjoyable. It measurably enhances our abilities to empathize with other people and connect with something larger than ourselves.

People often think that a fiction is something untrue, but this is wrong. The word derives from the Latin fingere, to make. As something made, fiction is different from something discovered, as in physics, or from something that happened, as in the news. But this does not mean it is false. Fiction is about possible selves in possible worlds. 

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When I was a young writer–think 13, 14, 15–I had an idea.  What if I took ten life topics like love, money, fate, and family, and wrote an article about them once a year, every year, until I died?  How would I change?  How would my writing grow?  I suppose even then I knew I would forever be in evolution, or at least hope to be.

I say hope to be because there was another idea I had when I was young, and this one kept me up at night.  It started to haunt me one night at a school sports event and has yet to let up, even to this day. 

Looking at the several hundred people in the stands, I had a stunning realization: Hardly any people populating those stands were physically beautiful.  Up to then, I’d assume it was just me that was ugly. Since everyone on TV was lovely (there was no reality TV then), I assumed I was just the odd one out. 

When I did not find a single TV-level beauty in the crowd, I was literally stunned, frozen in my tracks. Why…This changed everything! My mind raced.. But, but, but… If they were not beautiful, what did they have to live for? (Yes, this really did cross my mind.) I started looking closer.

The real problem, I soon realized, had nothing to do with beauty. The real problem was that the folks in the stands were out of shape, or smoking themselves to death (you could do that indoors then), or dressed in the least flattering clothes I could imagine. This was especially true for those who were even a day over thirty. Through my young eyes, all I could see was that these “old folks” were slouching, bored, tired–the vast majority has no life in them.  No pizazz.  No joy.  No wow.  Occasionally this changed when everyone stood to cheer a basketball going through a hoop, but otherwise it was all hot dogs and low-grade Melba toast.  

This living of the deadened life, I told myself, would not do.  I promised myself with the deepest of vows, I would not go there.  Not at thirty, or forty, or ever. And I’ve kept my word, often times at great cost. Even when the sweetest of seductions have pulled at me.  You know, the kind that says “You don’t have to do that, you don’t have to upset things, you don’t have to speak out, you don’t have to….”

Why have I ignored those seductions?  Because I promised myself as a kid I would not. No matter what, giving up on life before it was over could never be an option. So while I didn’t write on ten topics every year to watch myself grow (discipline came much later in life), and I’ve become far less judgmental of those who “sit out” the game of life, I have personally stayed firm to “forever being in evolution.” 

Because of this, things in my writing life changes quite a bit.  And it will keep changing.  Some might say that’s not a great business strategy (yet others would). But you know what? Those who think I’m writing to further my business interests don’t get me at all. 

Anyway, if this sounds a bit like a rant, it is.  But I’m not ranting at you.  I’m ranting at me.  I’m shaking myself, as I do every day, and saying “So, woman, how will you stay alive today?”  Because the “one thing to know about me” is this: I don’t want to be one of those people I saw looking like the living dead on the bleachers.  And I’m writing–my Be Who You Are eZine, my books, and this blog–because I don’t want you to be either.

I am unwritten
cant’ read my  mind
I’m undefined
I’m just beginning
the pen’s in my hand
ending unplanned…
        — Natasha Bedingfield

As a writer, my characters are always “becoming” and, over time, they become more and more authentic.  As a person, I’m also becoming authentic (hence my first website, www.BeWhoYouAre.com). Becoming me is never a done deal.  It’s a constant reevaluation.

I thought, when I was a teen, I’d get past this introspective phase, find myself, and that would be that.  I thought it again each time a new era in my life came along. I didn’t expect to have to go back to the drawing board so often–something about that felt like failure, like I wasn’t getting it right.

Today, I have a totally different take. I know I have to keep myself in evolution or everything falls flat. BORING! (Same with characters not growing.) Truth is, life changes you, and you change life, and when all is said and done, it takes a lifetime to become the person you really are.

It also takes effort. Just like writing, you have to sit down and do the work or you will have great ideas, but no books on the shelf (and boy do I love having multiple copies of my own books lining the shelves–they can never take that away from me).

So you know that old saying: “That’s my story and I’m sticking to it?”  Well, my version is “That’s my story and I’m sticking to it…’till it changes.“  In other words, don’t expect me to say what I said yesterday, or the day before. Check in with me…I evolve!  That doesn’t mean I won’t honor important commitments to the best of my ability, but it does mean I’ll reevaluate and shift (with integrity) anything that no longer serves the person I’m becoming.

In that way, I’m always just beginning…always open to life…always ready to evolve. 

How about YOU?

There are only two ways to create page turning content in a novel.  And, interestingly, they are the same two things you have to do to create a great life.  You must, on every page, have a problem to solve or an adventure to follow.  Otherwise, your reader will go…ho hum…nothing is happening…no reason to find out what happens next…and put down your book.  Deadly!

Over the course of a book, you’ll solve a good deal of the smaller problems, but don’t do it without FIRST creating a problem/adventure that is even BIGGER to pull the reader along.  So if Mayden has a problem with her father, I can solve it. But not before I create an even bigger issue–even if it is only looming in the background–to keep my readers wondering what will happen with that. 

In life, you want to live out a page turner, right?  Same rule applies.  Create an adventure, or you will find youself with a problem to solve.  Like turning a page, it’s what makes us get up in the morning! I don’t know about you, but I’d rather be living out my chosen adventure (like writing Mayden online, in real time, with the world watching–Yikes!), than wake up trying to deal with some problem I created for myself to make life interesting.  It’s not on purpose, of course, and you may say you never create your own problems.  But I’ve found that I’m much more involved in the creation of my own problems (un- or maybe sub-conscious) AND adventures (conscious) than I used to think!  

Just watch your own life, and see when you go to bed each night which you had more of…adventures or problems?  And what do you want when you wake up? If you want an adventure, plan it, and make it happen.  Might have just as many headaches as an adventure, but it’s a CHOSEN headache. That makes all the difference.  Just ask someoneone with frozen hands, feet, and who is having trouble breathing…it’s a lot more fun choosing to go mountain climbing than getting locked out of your car in a sleet storm.

When people ask me if one of my main characters is really me, I say ALL my characters are me (at least parts of them are). Even the bad guys. In this way, I write to know myself better. In this category, I’ll write about how life is a story, how the stories we “create” come to life in our own lives, and how we can use the truths about how to write great stories to create a great life.