If you're not a writer, imagine this. Imagine you're doing something you love, something you're passionate about, and this thing could help thousands of people--this thing could change how people see the world, understand it, accept it. Imagine you're doing this thing and someone asks, "Why would you want to do that? That won't make you a lot of money."
When someone says they want to be a scientist, they're not begotten with words of discouragement. It's brave to fight to become someone who is the CEO of a big business or someone who is the best in their medical field or someone who has found some new cure to a disease, but it's not brave to write. It's not brave to put your thoughts onto a piece of paper. It's not brave to create a world for people to escape to. It's not brave to introduce or unpack a topic. And it's certainly not brave when all of these things are created with every essence of your being pushed into them. Without writing, you would not be sitting here reading this.
It might be cliche to bring up, it might even be something written already--and some people may argue that this is the reason writing is worthless. So what if something is written already when you can write it a different way? The same old story of Romeo and Juliet has been told for years, yet we don't consider it worthless. We don't consider the ideas of love and human emotion and existence worthless. Writing let's us express these things. Sure, a scientist can cure some disease, but will their cure let you think about the world in a different way? Or will the media and books and movies influence the way this cure changes someone's life?
And sure, not all writing is real. A majority of it is fiction and so a majority of it never actually happened, but a majority of it tries to represent what could. No matter the genre, except for maybe non-fiction, an author is always trying to make a point, show a perspective, or teach a lesson. Without Romeo and Juliet, we wouldn't realize how foolish it is to fall in love with someone so quickly or we wouldn't realize that falling in love at first sight isn't so impossible either.
Writing replaces hope. It also gives us hope, but in hope's absence, it replaces hope. Doing the writing gives you the control to create what you want, say what you want. Some people don't like this and so they read the writing, but that gives you the control to imagine the world and imagine the characters. No matter what side of the fence you may be on, you will always have some form of control. So, yes, I know this is cliche, but at least I have the control to keep it that way if I want.
