It’s Not Just Entertainment

There are a lot of reasons why we started Unlikely Story. Many of them were self-oriented (“This will be fun!”; “This will improve my writing!”; “This will help me understand the Other Side! (i.e. why editors and publishers make incomprehensible decisions like rejecting my unrevised manuscripts)”; “This will rid me of all that pesky excess cash that’s been lying around the house!”).

All good reasons.

But the real reason is this: It’s not just entertainment. Good fiction isn’t just a good tale, told well. It’s a sharing of ideas, and a sharing of worlds. A sharing of little bits of oneself out into the world. A sharing of ways of seeing, and of ways of being. Good fiction grows the world.

Merc Rustad’s essay this week shows just how important, how necessary, and how life-changing this can be.

http://www.jimchines.com/2015/02/exponentially-hoping-rustad/

The fact that we can contribute to this, even just a little bit? That’s why we’re doing this.