Episode One: Why Writing Fiction Still Matters in 2025
Show Notes
In the very first episode of the Better Writer Podcast, I’m asking one very important question: Does writing fiction matter?
When AI has shown up to replace us and the world feels like it’s always in a state of crisis does it still make sense to sit down and write your stories?
I believe it is. Here’s why.
Links mentioned in this episode:
Subscribe to the Better Writer Weekly newsletter here
Learn more about my work here
Read my blog post on harmful worldbuilding tropes here
Check out the sources that I consulted in putting together this show:
Article: Paul Slovic observes the ‘psychic numbing’ of COVID-19
Article: Why Your Brain Can’t Empathize with Large Tragedies
Books Mentioned (affiliate links):
Key Takeaways:
Writing is essential even in a world dominated by AI.
Diverse perspectives in literature are crucial for changing our world for the better - even if we don't see results right away.
Fiction is an amazing coping mechanism and your book could be the thing that gets someone through the toughest part of their life.
Stories can help readers navigate difficult emotions and experiences in a safe way that doesn't trigger the defensiveness that can keep people from connecting in real life.
Writing can also empower you whether it's just in telling a story that matters to you or in accomplishing a difficult goal.
Fiction has the power to foster empathy and understanding in the real world too.
No matter who you are, you have a unique story that matters.
Transcript
Please note, this transcript was automatically generated and lightly edited. I apologize in advance for any errors that may have come through.
Welcome to episode number one of the Better Writer podcast. I am just so honored and grateful that you're here spending part of your day with me as I talk about writing. It's one of my favorite things to talk about in the world and I'm just so excited to share this podcast with you. My dream is for this podcast to be inspirational, educational, and I just hope that this is going to help you become a better writer, whatever that means to you.
All right, before we get started, I just wanted to say, if you want to hear even more from me, if you are looking for more inspiration, more craft advice, more information about how I work with writers and help them become better, then I also have a weekly newsletter, The Better Writer Weekly. It comes out every Tuesday afternoon, and you'll just get to hear a little bit from me. I usually share a mix of personal stories, writing advice, random insights into the things that are making my life a little bit better.
at the moment. And if you're interested in that, you can find a link to subscribe in the show notes. And of course, you can also go to my website,
I wanted to kick off the show by answering the question, why write? It's 2025, AI has arrived on the scene. It feels like everything is changing. So why bother writing when the robots are going to replace us and you can churn out a book in 20 seconds? It also just feels like a lot of things in the world are going wrong. Everything is burning down around us.
Why bother writing fiction in a world where children are being zip-tied on the street? Why write fiction while people we care about, maybe even you yourself, are being harmed by policy changes and natural disasters and all of these other things that we are just constantly inundated with in the news? It just feels like maybe this isn't the time, maybe writing doesn't matter anymore.
when all of these other things are happening. But I would argue that all of those things that are happening in the world are actually a reason to write and to keep creating fiction.
So if you have ever asked yourself that question, if you have ever wondered if the things you're working on still matter, today I want you to know that you are not wasting your time. You are not being foolish. You are doing something by writing a book. You are doing something that truly matters for the world. And I have three reasons why I think that is. First, I think the world needs new perspectives. Second, fiction is a way to cope.
When the world is falling apart, we need those stories more than ever. And finally, fiction can actually make people better and that power should not be discounted and should not be forgotten.
right, the first reason we need new perspectives and specifically we need your perspective. Let's talk about the AI elephant in the room. And I'm not going to pretend to be an expert on generative AI, but I think I have at least a basic understanding of how it works. And at a basic level, generative AI is a pattern recognition
machine. AI takes data that it has been trained on, it looks for patterns that are repeated,
and then it repackages and submits that information in the order in which it thinks we, the user, want to hear it. So if you ask ChatGBT, give me a workout plan for getting fit in six weeks. It's going to scour the internet, it's going to scour the data it was trained on, and then it is going to spit back its best.
approximation or estimation of what you want in a six week workout plan. now the problem with that, and I mean, there are a lot of problems with AI, namely, you know, a lot of that data
sourced, stolen from creators. But beyond that, even if all of that data were ethically sourced,
The data set that we have is inherently biased. Think about which voices throughout history have been celebrated and which have been silenced, it is not that long ago in our history that things were even more unequal than they are now, it was illegal.
for someone who looked like me to even learn to read or write in this country. So the data that we have is not representative of the diversity in our world and is not representative of all of the lived experiences in this world. And we need to keep adding to the narrative. We need to keep writing against those old, outdated, biased stories. That is true of racial diversity. When we're talking about gender, I mean, if we think about, you know,
It's been like not even 50 years since women could have their own bank accounts without permission from a man. I mean, those things are just not as historical as we sometimes like to pretend they are. If we think about the conversation around neurodivergence, those conversations were not happening when I was in school and I'm not that old. There are a lot of perspectives and insights that just were not around, are not represented in the data that we have.
which means AI was not trained on them. I am not saying that you should write a book so that AI can be trained on it and learn a new perspective. What I am saying is that if we just throw up our hands and say, well, the computer's doing it, so I'm just not gonna bother, then those stories are never going to be out there in the world. We need to keep telling our stories.
because that is how we are going to try to create a better world. And it might not work, it might be hard, but if we give up, it's definitely not going to happen. So I think the more that we can bring diverse perspectives into literature, the more we can normalize diverse perspectives with our stories, that is going to very slowly start to change the conversation. It's going to change the assumptions, change the norms, because
Let's be real, that's how a lot of us learn about the world by reading, whether we're doing that intentionally, seeking out information or not.
I consider myself to be very, very fortunate to work with authors who are doing this all the time. And I don't just mean people who are writing realistic fiction. That is not the only place where stereotypes show up. And it is not the only place where we can write against those narratives
romance. And that is a great opportunity to A, start
undoing some of those racist tropes that are baked into fantasy. I wrote a blog post about this and I will link to it in the show notes, but a lot of the fantasy tropes that we take for granted are based on racial and anti-semitic biases and we need to be able to acknowledge that and then start writing differently so we aren't replicating those systems going forward. Again, you might not be able to change the world overnight with one book, but if we give up, if we stop telling our stories, then no one is going to represent us.
going forward into the future. And the stories that already exist aren't necessarily going to help us cope with what comes next. So we need to keep writing, keep exploring the issues we're facing now so we have stories that resonate with the current. Which brings me to reason number two, why fiction still matters.
fiction helps us cope. I work almost exclusively with genre fiction, mostly fantasy, fantasy romance, but I will delve into mystery, thriller, all that kind of stuff. And I am also someone who left a job in public service to work with writers and work with books full time. And sometimes I have had that little thought in the back of my head of, you know, did I make a mistake?
I went from a job that very clearly helps people. I went from a job where I was serving students and families every day, and now I read books all day. I've had moments where I've questioned myself and wondered, am I actually doing something that matters now that I'm an editor?
especially when I work with genres that you might consider unserious. For those who can't see me on
unserious is in air quotes there. I have realized that those books do matter. Genre fiction does matter. I've already touched on this idea that fantasy can be used to address real world issues through fiction, and I think that's really powerful. I think using fantasy can be a great way to take an issue that is just too controversial.
to really talk about in our real world and address it. But even if it doesn't do that, even if you're not addressing a real world issue, even if your book is just light and fun, it may be the thing that gets someone through the hardest part of their life. That might be the thing that helps a teacher cope at the end of their workday so they can keep going back and serving students the next day. And I have experienced that in my own life.
I can still remember very vividly that I was reading The Well of Tears by Cecilia Darten-Thorton when I went to New Mexico to visit my grandfather while he was in hospice the last time that I was ever going to see him. I was in middle school. I would say I was probably a highly sensitive child is what you might call it nowadays. But I, you know, I wasn't...
dealing well. I still don't really like hospitals. I don't really like dealing with death and dying, even though it's a part of life. But what I had in that moment was that book. And I still very, very much remember pretty much carrying it with me wherever I went. It was a mass market paperback, so the perfect size for just throwing in a purse or your pocket or whatever. And that helped me. And that's why I still remember it is because it helped me cope.
And it is pretty incredible that I have not actually read another book by that author. But almost 20 years later, I still have a very vivid recollection of that one story that was with me at a particularly difficult time in my life. And I still do this. If I am stressed or overwhelmed, I am going to reach for one of my comfort books.
Anne Bishop is one that I pretty much always turn to if I am, you know, not happy going through something. I will be reading another Anne Bishop book and it's going to help. I also did that during COVID. During the pandemic, I flew through all eight of the Bridgerton books. I'm usually someone who needs a break in between books in a series, I also have a tendency to never finish a series as well.
But I flew through that entire series maybe in a year and a half because I just kept going back to those stories to escape from the reality of the pandemic. I was a teacher during COVID. I was teaching online. It was absolutely miserable. And that series of books helped me get through it, helped me not turn off the computer and quit teaching immediately as soon as we started having to teach online. And that's powerful.
The first Bridgerton book was published in 2000, a full 20 years before the pandemic happened. Julia Quinn did not write that story, so a high school teacher could cope with a global health crisis. But that is exactly what that book did, again, two decades after it came out.
And that, I think, is something to celebrate. It may seem so small, but it could be the biggest thing in the world to someone when they are going through something and just need to be able to escape for a few minutes of their day. And I also want to say you don't need to be writing something that is lighthearted or fun or happy for you to have that impact on someone. I also got really obsessed with The Witcher during that same time period.
And even though the show is super dark, it pretty much could not be further from Bridgerton in terms of content. It still gives us hope that there are people out there who are fighting to overcome the darkness and maybe just maybe they will succeed. And I think that is still the appeal. I think of darker fiction. It's not about the darkness. It's about the hope. Those who are willing to take a stand, even if they're imperfect and maybe especially if they're imperfect. And that is a source of comfort.
When there are dark times in reality and they feel insurmountable, rather than wallowing in that, we want to see the dark world with the heroes who are going to save us from it. So in either case, if you are writing a story, whether it explores darkness and helps someone see that they are not alone in whatever
going through, or if you are writing a book that takes people out of that and shows them that a happy ending is possible no matter what is going on in the world,
you are doing something for those readers that they are not going to get somewhere else. You are doing something powerful for those readers and that should be celebrated. On the flip side, you as a writer can also benefit. Writing can be a way to cope for you as well. And I think that could be in telling your story, telling a story that's meaningful to you, or it could just be
in the accomplishment and the empowerment that comes from setting a big, difficult goal and then following it through. Again, I have experienced that as well. When I started my first book, it was again in the pandemic, I could not control what was happening in the world. I could not control the COVID numbers here in Rhode Island, which were awful for a while. I could not make sure that all of my students had a stable home environment to learn in.
I could not control whether they came to class or turned their camera on or actually participated. I could not control so many things. But when I logged out for the day, I could start writing and I could control my word count. I wasn't necessarily aiming to write the best thing in the world at that point, but I was at least in control of what I produced.
It was just something small that I could control, that I could keep track of, and that I could keep moving forward with. And then obviously that spiraled into me totally uprooting my life, but that's a different story. I have also found that fiction is such a great way to explore the questions that we are trying to answer in our own lives. For myself, my first book explores themes of religion and how religion is used to control women, to try to
tell them what it is to be a good person in ways that it doesn't necessarily do that for men. I also started exploring questions of what it means to have children, because that was a big question I was asking at the time when I started is, do I even want children? Do I want to bring children into this world? I didn't come away with an answer, but just the act of exploring and writing and creating a world in which I could explore those questions without any...
real-world ramifications, because when you create a character, you don't have to pay child support if you abandon them later. And so you get to start imagining different possibilities. You can explore different possibilities safely in a way that just isn't... We can't write all of our possible futures and live them out in the real world, but we can write them in fiction and then explore what happens next.
It can be such a great way to explore and examine the questions that don't have easy answers. Another thing that I ended up exploring in my book is this idea of religion being exploited in order to gain political power, which, you know, not at all relevant to our modern times, is it? But, no, there's no easy way to address that in society. There's an easy way to undo the harm
That is caused by abusing religion for political power, but it's something that I can explore in fiction and I get to control whether the good guys win or not in my books. I may not be able to control the outcome in our world, but I can control the outcome in my story. And I think that is a great way, again, to cope with what is going on, to show people a different pathway, to show people that there is still hope, even if it's only coming out in that
fantasy context. It may not be part of our real world right now, hope is important. Imagining a different possibility is important, and that is something that we get to do as fiction writers.
There's a reason why people have been writing, reading, seeking out stories for entertainment for thousands and thousands of years. Stories sustain us. They help us cope. They help us deal with real life and keep doing the work to make the real world better. And if we don't have stories, then it just gets so much harder to live and enjoy. And I think, again, you might be writing the most lighthearted book in the world, but it
be having a real impact on someone's day. don't ever discount your stories just because they're fiction, just because it's romance or fantasy or whatever it is. You don't know the impact that you're having on someone's life and quality of life and you never know. It could be making a big difference in someone's day and you won't know what that is until you get your book out there and start sharing it with readers.
And then finally, my third reason, fiction can actually make us better people. And this fits so perfectly with my theme in the Better Writer podcast, but there is actual scientific evidence that people who read fiction are better people. So I am going to actually give you some evidence here. Okay, according to a study published by the National Library of Medicine, the study was called, How Does Fiction Reading Influence Empathy?
an experimental investigation on the role of emotional transportation. It's very long title, but the researchers found that
After reading a short story, the readers became more empathetic and those effects lasted for an entire week after they read the story. So just think about that. You read one short story, maybe it takes half an hour, whatever it is, for an entire week, their behavior changed and became more empathetic.
And it's not just that these people were reading. That effect was not observed when people were reading nonfiction. So it was only when they were reading a story they could have read an article that was on a very similar topic. But that empathetic impact only came from fiction. And the researchers theorize that people actually feel more deeply when they're reading fiction because it is providing a safe place for them to feel that emotion. We have a tendency to kind of distance ourselves from
Nonfiction, if you're reading or you're watching the news and you're hearing all these terrible things happening in the world, there's kind of this implicit obligation, like I should be doing something. So we tend to kind of hold back and that doesn't happen with fiction because in fiction, the person experiencing this terrible thing is not real. There's nothing we can do to help them because they do not exist, which then allows us to feel more deeply, to react more.
It's also generally easier for us to be emotionally impacted when we're reading the story of one person compared to when we are hearing about a general tragedy or a large-scale tragedy. That's because of something called psychic numbing. And I'm going to link to all of the sources that I found in preparing for this podcast in the show notes.
Basically, when we are told about a major catastrophe, whether it is a natural disaster or something that's affecting a large group of people, our brains have a really hard time comprehending tragedy on that scale. It is much easier for us to understand and empathize with one person's tragedy versus something that's happening on a societal level or to a very large group of people. So again,
That is what fiction does. We often have one character's perspective, or at least one character's perspective at a time. We are seeing their personal experience. We are seeing their emotions. And so because that story is focusing us on one person, it's much easier to have empathy for that one character than if we were trying to empathize with an entire group's situation. In another study, researchers also found that people are more likely to suspend disbelief
when they're confronted with a fictional narrative. So it kind of goes back to what I was mentioning earlier, saying we can use fantasy as a way to talk about real world issues without people getting super defensive. And I think that is what's in play here, that when it's fiction, we're less likely to start asking those what about questions. Like, oh, you well, you said that that person said something racist to you, but what if they were just having a bad day?
or, you got passed over for a promotion, are you sure it's because they're discriminating against your disability or maybe they just found a better candidate? If we're reading fiction and we're reading a fictional account of someone experiencing those same things, those defensive mechanisms are less likely to crop up, which again allows us to feel more empathy, which may not automatically translate to big large-scale change in the real world.
but it starts to lay the groundwork.
Because just acknowledging that this fictional experience is bad, that's opening a door. Another study in the Journal of Research in Personality also found that fiction reading was associated with greater sociability overall.
Nonfiction was actually associated with less sociability. They theorized that understanding and comprehending characters in fiction parallels understanding people in real life.
⁓ I don't know about you, but I really feel like we need more of that in the world. We need more people who are able to be empathetic and understanding and better at reading other people so that we can try to connect. Again, is this going to change the world overnight? I don't think so. Obviously, it hasn't already. We already have a lot of people reading, but it could at least help. And I think if we had more people reading more fiction, we definitely could potentially find ourselves in a better world.
Another study found that people who read novels are better than average at reading emotions. Again, any way we look at it, fiction has a real impact on the people who read it, and that impact translates to their lives. And I think I've seen this manifest. My interactions with the bookish community in general has been so overwhelmingly positive, and I think that this is why.
People change for the better when they read a lot of fiction and that's magical. Now the challenge becomes how do we bring more people in the door? It's by making sure that there are lots of different books out there that we are celebrating all genres because it does not matter what kind of fiction you're reading. It's this fiction in general that has this impact.
So I feel like I have been ranting for a little bit, but this is something that really gets me excited because I think it's just so powerful. If you think about the fact that you can type words into a computer, someone else, months down the road, years from now, they could be thousands of miles away from you. Someone else reads those words and an image that only existed in your brain suddenly hops over to their brain.
you get to have an impact on someone that you may never meet or interact with. It could happen long after you've left this world because your story will remain after you. And I think that's just so powerful and something that we take for granted that we have this ability to do that. Every year I used to start the school year with an article in Psychology Today called Why Sharing Stories Brings People Together. And that article talked about a study done at Princeton where they put people in an MRI scanner and then had them listen to a story.
And they found that the brains of the listeners synchronized with the brain of the storyteller. So part of the storyteller's brain would light up, the exact same area of the brain would light up in the listener's heads. And I just think that is just so cool. Then it's not just that you're giving someone an emotional experience. It's not just that you are sharing a perspective. You are literally taking over someone's brain.
Because even though that story was focused on oral storytelling, the same thing happens when we read. I'm going to read you a quote from Lisa Cron's book Wired for Story. she says, the regions of the brain that process the sights, sounds, tastes and movement of real life are
activated when we are engrossed in a compelling narrative. That's what accounts for the vivid mental images and the visceral reactions we feel when we can't stop reading. Okay, that's magic. It's absolutely magic that someone is reading your words and their brain chemistry is changing in a way that we can physically see on an MRI. Think about it. If someone is in that machine getting scanned, we would see the impact of your writing.
on their brain in real time.
mind boggling and it's so cool. Maybe I'm just a nerd, probably am, but that power is objectively incredible. And I think it's something that we should not take lightly, that we should appreciate and honor in our work. And that kind of brings me to why I edit and why I do what I do for writers.
because in the quote from Wired for Story, our brain is activated when we're engrossed in a compelling narrative. The studies that I mentioned earlier had a common theme: they found people became more empathetic if they were emotionally transported by a story. So all of this magical
brain hijacking power that I've mentioned, this ability to change people for the better, to make them feel what you want them to feel, to transplant images from your brain to theirs. Those powers only work if your story is actually engaging to your readers.
A poorly written book is not going to change someone's life. And I know that sounds really harsh. And I don't mean for that to shut you down or make you doubt yourself. But it is just the reality that if you want your book to have this power, if you want your book to change someone's life or make them more empathetic or simply take them out of their crappy day, it has to be good. Good is not one objective standard. I want to make that very, very clear.
But you have to write a book that is compelling for your target audience. If you want to write romance, you have to write a good romance. If you want to write fantasy, you have to write a good fantasy. Otherwise, you are not going to have this power. And as an editor, I help people harness the magic. I help them take all of their weird and wonderful ideas, all the things that they are super excited about. I help them take the story that they want to share with the world.
and I help them produce it in a way that is going to be compelling to readers.
bridge the gap between vision and execution so that you can accomplish whatever it is you want to accomplish with your book and...
I have been so incredibly lucky. I have gotten to work with some amazing writers who have incredible stories to tell and I am so excited that I get to help them make sure their story resonates because I am working with a lot of writers who are imagining fantasy that are
different from the norm that are going to start undoing some of the harm that fantasy has caused in the past. I'm so excited to do that because if those books don't work on a technical level, then those writers are never going to have the opportunity to share that story and change the narrative. And I think that is why I edit. I edit so that people who have really powerful stories to tell can share them with the world and change readers' lives.
And that's also why I chose the name, The Better Writer Podcast, because better, I think, is not just about the technique, it's not just about the craft, it's about creating books that make the world better, that make people's lives better. And I'm really excited to keep doing that. I'm excited to help you as a podcast listener do that. Even if you never hire me as an editor, I hope that I can help you get closer to your goals just by listening to the show, and I'm excited to be part of your journey. So.
To recap, if you are listening to this podcast and you have ever doubted whether your story matters, I'm here to tell you that it does. No matter who you are, you have a unique perspective. No one has had the unique set of experiences that you have had, and that means you have a story to tell. If you have ever
worried that your story doesn't matter because you're writing a romance that is light and fluffy and fun. If you have ever worried that your fantasy isn't important or that your mystery isn't important because it's not literary fiction, it's not going to win the Booker Prize, your story matters because it could help someone get through something difficult. It could help someone get past a hard day at work. And that has value.
Finally, just know that even if you're writing fiction, even if your story is totally removed from the real world, fiction can make people more empathetic. Reading fiction can turn us into better people, which means your book could be having a real world impact, even if it's indirect and something you don't get to see. So no matter how you look at it, your writing matters, making your writing great matters, working on it matters, and I hope you will keep going and keep striving to write the best book you are capable of writing and that you will keep working to share your story with the world because we absolutely need it.
And I will be over here rooting for you to write better books and to change the world one reader at a time. All right. Thank you so, so much for listening to the very first episode of the Better Writer podcast. If you've stuck around to the end, I'm so grateful and I hope you'll stick around for the next episode. This is a brand new show and I could really use your help getting the word out. So as many writers as possible can find it. My dream is to help as many people with the show as possible.
So first off, if you could please leave a review wherever you were listening to the show, I would be so grateful. Reviews help me get found by other writers and I would really value your feedback, your opinion. Let me know. Do you like the show? Do you hate it? Whatever you want to say, I appreciate you. Second, if you have a writer friend who could really benefit from this message today, someone who is doubting the value of what they're doing, please share this with them. Send them the link. that would be super helpful and you'll get to be the hero because you shared it with them. And then finally, if you are willing to, even bigger than that, snap a screenshot on your phone, share it in your stories on Instagram or post wherever you tend to hang out. Just let people know that you're listening to the show, that you enjoyed it and that you think they should check it out. I would really appreciate you helping me get the word out to as many people as possible.
Thank you again for listening. Have a wonderful day. Keep writing. Keep getting better one word at a time. I'll see you next time
