The Ends of Writing: Entertainment

Today's blog deals with the purposes of creative writing. 

We all learn in school about exposition, description, persuasion--all purposes for writing, especially in an academic setting.  This of course is only a partial list of writing aims.  When it comes to creative writing, I believe there are lots of different goals for which to write.

Before you write, ask yourself why. 

Why am I writing this (insert writing piece here)?  The answer to this could take many forms, obviously, but the question itself may not be one we readily ask ourselves.  The reader of any piece of writing, whether consciously or not, reads for a purpose.  That which is read should be written with that purpose in mind. 

I read the news to be informed, therefore the articles expose and explain.  I read a poem to reflect, therefore, the poem is savvy and deep.  I read a short novel to be entertained, therefore the novel tells an engaging story.  Et cetera.  (have you ever spelled out "etc."?  It's quite liberating.")

These are extremely non-specific, and there are indeed innumerable reasons for which to read and therefore to write. 

The reason I make this connection is that your aim will affect your shot.  In other words, depending on the purpose for which you sit down and write, your style and approach may differ. 

So, for the rest of this blog, I'll begin to talk about one of these avenues, starting with a basic purpose .

Writing to Entertain

Many sorts of writing fulfill this purpose for the reader.  This, I believe, can be one of the most basic and therefore shallow forms of writing, but nonetheless an important one.  Entertainment can intersect with a lot of different categories of literature, and for many of us we read for this reason all the time. 

Sometimes it keeps us from going insane.

{Before I go on, I submit that telling a story is not in itself a purpose for writing like entertaining is.  As I will point out, story is one method that can be used for many different purposes.  A story always has some ultimate purpose for its composition, otherwise it is without purpose, and if it can be without one so plainly, I don't think one can say that it can be an end in itself.  At least not in the present discussion.  So there.}

To entertain the reader, one must engage their minds just enough so that they take joy in the reading and yet at the end of the day no heavy lifting has been done.  The reader leaves the written material with a smile on his face, or a lightened heart.  This is not to say that you can't mix and match your purposes and methods!

One of the most common methods used to entertain is the story.  A novel is a story.  A comic strip is a story.  A short story is a...yeah.  This is not to say that ALL novels are written for entertainment, nor that all novels are written the same (this applies equally for comic strips and short stories, for that matter).  

I think I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt that if you have read all the way to this point and are still interested, you may already have the intelligence to know what a story is.  Therefore, I will leave stories alone.

Entertaining writing essentially stays focused on the point.  This stuff doesn't stray into flowery description or aside comments, off-topic forays, or anything potentially BORING---unless it directly relates to the purpose of entertainment.  An example would be an article that makes a long description an engaging and essential end in itself.  

That in a nutshell is my collected muse on Writing for Entertainment.  More purposes and their corresponding muses later!

May your pen always be at the hand of a ready mind,

- J Cole