Why Write Fiction?

"I saw an angel in the marble and I carved until I set him free."

-Michelangelo

Nearly any artist will tell you that what was once a blank canvas, a block of clay, or a silence that needed to be filled with weeping melody came to be a completed work by hours of labor, bouts of unparalleled joy, and, in many cases, a shedding of tears. They will also tell you that much like Michelangelo's winged companion, the final product is something that was envisioned long before the finishing touches. The same is true of writing. The marble, of course, is the paper (or in many cases, a computer monitor with a blinking cursor), and the words are the angels we unleash. In poetry, in fiction, and even in the carefully arranged words that make up a formal essay, a writer starts with an image in mind; the task—the challenge, the beauty of the thing—is in communicating that image.