I believe the human mind, one might even say the human soul, learns best when it is allowed to explore ideals, messages, and knowledge through stories.  Perhaps this is because it allows us to relate, to connect, to experience through the eyes of others what we could not live through ourselves, and to grow through those experiences. Analogies and parables are the methods the Savior himself chose to teach His people.  Fairy tales, fables, even histories, have been used by every people in every generation to live on earth for the same purposes.  We tell stories to inspire, to share knowledge and experience, to breed empathy and understanding, to explore ideas and different perspectives or ways of living, and to help one another—to help ourselves—find purpose, peace, and meaning in life.

This is what interests me about creative writing.  It is the sharing of thoughts and ideals in a way that can not only captivate, but inspire, instruct, or change an audience.  When we write we come to learn far more about ourselves and our own understandings of the world, and we ourselves can often find far deeper meaning in our written words than we at first meant to impart with them.  Creative writing allows the soul to express itself, and to discover itself.  It allows the reader to come along for that journey and to learn by sharing in those stories and experiences.

*Written as a response to the question “Why are you interested in Creative Writing?” for a Creative Writing course taken through BYU.