Benefits of Reading Fiction
“Fiction is the lie through which we tell the truth.” ―Albert Camus
Nothing stirs the imagination like reading a fiction book where the richness of the mind’s expanse knows no boundaries. Have you ever encountered a circumstance where the facts and data seemed meaningless unless they were presented alongside a narrative that allowed you to relate to, empathize with, picture, and feel the depth of something intangible yet real in your soul? You’ve reached the realm of reading fiction, in which other forms seek to delve into the reader’s psyche; that’s the power of written words.
Improves our Creativity
Watching a movie or playing a video game is much easier on the senses and the imagination. In fiction, especially in popular genres like fantasy and science fiction, you must engage with the characters, setting, mythos, and more. Sight is our strongest sense, and to visualize the passage of a book truly puts the mind to work to immerse in that world. Reading and engaging with fiction as entertainment and analysis is a worthwhile exercise to expand your creativity because it’s an active experience rather than a passive one.
I recommend reading each book in two passes; the first time, you read for entertainment without interruption, don’t worry about looking up words; just treat it like you’re skydiving without releasing the parachute! Second, analyze it like a professor by summarizing each chapter, noting themes, characters’ personalities, philosophical ideas, and recurring motifs. When you take this approach to fiction reading, you open neuron connections and bridge new relationships that can translate into other areas of your life. As a result, the creative inspiration in your writing is further supplanted.
“But I opened my mind and came to appreciate that even in fiction there can be morsels of truth.” —Sejal Badani, The Storyteller’s Secret
Improved literacy
Fiction has been shown to benefit readers, including improved literacy skills. Students who read fiction had better reading comprehension skills than those who did not read fiction. Students who read fiction had better grammar and vocabulary skills than those who did not read fiction.
“I think that when people read fiction, they’re really reading for wisdom. I am. That’s what most of us really love. If we read a novel that rocks our world, it’s because there’s something in it that we didn’t know already. Not just information but really wisdom – sort of what to do with our information. And wisdom comes from experience.” —Barbara Kingsolver
The benefits of reading fiction are not just limited to improved literacy skills. A study published in the American Psychological Association found that people who read fiction had better social cognition skills than those who did not. The study found that people who read fiction could better understand other people’s emotions and intentions and see things from another person’s perspective.
The benefits of reading fiction are not just limited to improved literacy and social cognition skills.
Relaxation and stress relief
Reading fiction can be a great way to relax and relieve stress as some health benefits. Immersing yourself in a good story can help you forget your troubles and escape reality. Even just a few minutes of reading can help reduce stress levels and improve your overall mood.
“Oh no, real life is escape. The great terrors, the horrors–we hope–of your life come from reading fiction.” —Orson Scott Card
So next time you’re overwhelmed, try reaching for a novel instead of downing another cup of coffee. It’s the best form of stress relief around.
Helps us sleep better
There are a few reasons why reading fiction before bed may help you sleep better. First, it can help you relax and wind down from the day. Second, it can take your mind off any worries or stressors you may be dealing with. And third, it can distract people from the thoughts that often keep them up at night.
So if you’re struggling to get a good night’s sleep, try picking up a fiction book before bed instead of watching TV or scrolling through social media. It helps you relax and drift off to sleep more easily.
Fiction fosters compassion
You will undoubtedly love, hate, like, dislike, or feel indifferent about the characters in a story. As an incorporeal bystander who spends almost every moment with characters in a tale, you’ll walk away with a different impression of them than you enter with. Fiction readers build important qualities with each engagement of characters in a story.
Regular readers will learn more about each character’s fears, insecurities, motivations, goals, and disputes between characters as they travel together. You can also watch their development as they change with each interaction, dialogue, conflict, and moments of fun. This relatedness you experience with them is empathy, and it’s excellent for understanding other people by putting yourself in their shoes.
“Reading fiction not only develops our imagination and creativity, it gives us the skills to be alone. It gives us the ability to feel empathy for people we’ve never met, living lives we couldn’t possibly experience for ourselves, because the book puts us inside the character’s skin.” —Ann Patchett
This is especially helpful not in a transactional way but in a genuinely reciprocal relationship. Empathy reveals to a person that other people also share the good and bad aspects of their human nature and biological limitations, allowing us to be humble about this revelation. The intention of stories should be to take empathy and transform it into compassion rather than just passively feeling the internal feelings of others. Lending a helping hand speaks volumes to the divine in all of us.
We become amateur detectives
The detective work you get to do when you follow a fictional story’s journey is one of its most alluring aspects. We play a role in putting together the puzzle of how the events of the story will unfold based on the author’s use of subtext, foreshadowing or flashback teases, and character reactions to the circumstances that change their original plans; the suspicion you surmised with one character motivation in an earlier scene and how will it end up in the next?
Based on the clues you have compiled, there may be a satisfying ending or cliffhanger in the next chapter or book. In either case, the detective work you get to take part in is a tool you can use in your own life to help reveal: the nuances, the patterns, the subtext, or writings on the wall to help make the next informed decision that culminates with the elixir at hand or tread further in the dark with a lantern — With the help of stories we can practice for real life.
“People who don’t read fiction are scared of what’s inside their own heads.” —Carla H. Krueger
The Gist
Fictional literature has a magical quality in its own right. Fiction books like reading Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings can be a great way to escape the stresses of everyday life. It is also a great way to learn about other cultures and worlds you may need to become more familiar with. Fiction can also help improve your writing skills. Reading fiction is a great place to start if you want to improve your writing.
- Whether you’re experiencing writer’s block or need a new perspective on developing new ideas in business, reading fictional literature for entertainment and analysis can spark your creativity well to last a lifetime—including in other arts.
- Therefore, the next time you feel overwhelmed, consider picking up a book rather than drinking more coffee. It might be the most effective method of stress relief available.
- So instead of watching TV or scrolling through social media before bed if you’re having trouble sleeping, try picking up a fiction book. You might discover that it promotes relaxation and makes it simpler for you to fall asleep.
- If you’re running low on empathy, then look no closer. Fiction contains an abundance of it through character development: the character’s motivation, inner and outer woes, and conflicts; it sheds light on the journey the protagonist undergoes to have a satisfying or unexpected ending. Not just an empathy pot to fill but also an insight to transition into the act of compassion to better understand what others are going through.
- Fiction gives the reader the privilege of solving a puzzle by connecting the dots between characters’ actions and dialogue, which eventually trains the reader’s mind to translate what they are reading into the real world.
In my next post, I’ll convey the benefits I discovered from reading poetry.
