To nudge the mind of the reader, poke it 'til it stirs; to lure it out of its rut, remind it there's more out there.

To revive faith in humanity, hope for the future.

To highlight human failures, warn against hubris.

To create something that brings joy to the reader by virtue of its inherent beauty -- artjoy -- and makes them want to read a passage again, maybe even share it.

To distract and entertain, to offer a moment's relief, taking the reader on a journey that lifts them out a bad situation.

To inform. Here's something I've learned -- let me share it with you.

To pose or inspire questions that lead to meaningful dialog. Where are we humans headed? Why? And is it the right direction?

To allow my own imagination to expand and unfold into a space bigger than my working memory, and allow myself to later reenter that space. Essentially a workaround for the limits of my brain.

To increase my appreciation for the writing of others. See how hard it is, and what a gift this other writer has?

To inspire smart people to fight. We need more smart fighters in this country, willing to put community above self once in a while. Too many people, myself included, have squirreled themselves away in lives of relatively isolated bourgeois success, choosing comfort and financial gain over service to and committed participation in community. Too much Hufflepuff, not enough Gryffindor. Too much pork belly, not enough kale.

Because we learn compassion one story at a time.

Our legacy as a species relies on our successfully instilling in our AI successors an ethical compass truer than our own. Given all I see in the world today, that's a pretty low bar. Perhaps a reader will help build that compass.

To help those who struggle with loneliness reframe their world in such a way that they can lower their hypervigilance in social situations and be more inclined to trust, while also seeing that giving is the quickest route to feeling valued by others.

To fulfill one's duty to protect and promote human rights. For, as Maurice Cranston said, "To speak of a universal right is to speak of a universal duty... Indeed, if this universal duty were not imposed, what sense could be made of the concept of a universal human right?"

"The skill of writing is to create a context in which other people can think." -- Edwin Schlossberg

"I write entirely to find out what I'm thinking, what I'm looking at, what I see and what it means. What I want and what I fear." -- Joan Didion

"All the world’s power over us lies in its ability to persuade us that we are powerless to understand each other, to feel and see and love each other, and that therefore it is pointless for us to try. Art knows better, which is why the world tries so hard to make art impossible, to immiserate artists, to ban their work, silence their voices, and why it’s so important for all of us to, quite simply, make art possible." -- Michael Chabon

And even if you worry nobody will read what you've written, writing serious fiction takes you through a process of personal development "to become the person who can write the book":

Seems to me that novels take years to write because you are hard at work becoming the person who can write the book at the same time you are writing it

— Rachel Yoder (@RachelYoder) January 11, 2020