Often times when I tell people that I am studying creative writing they reply with the ever awkward: “oh…” sometimes followed by a polite: “good for you!” I don’t think the reason that many people react this way to my degree is because they think that writers are stupid, I think that they just don’t understand what a writer’s purpose is. It may not be as well-known as an engineering or a nursing degree, but a writing degree (and all arts degrees for that matter) has a purpose, nonetheless.

Writers have the duty to describe.

I’m not talking about imagery or exposition in your piece. What I am talking about is describing society. There is a reason that museums are filled with art; art tells us what the world feels like and looks like to ordinary people. The purpose of art is to emphasize what society looks like, whether it be past, present, or future and writing is no exception.

Maybe you like history and want to write about the past so that readers can understand how things used to be and how that has influenced society today. Take for example Lawrence Hill’s the Book of Negroes, which is a historical fiction written about slavery and racism in the United States, Canada, and England in the late 1700s to early 1800s. Though the novel is fiction, it is accurately written to reflect society in that time period. By reading this novel, one is able to better understand the racialized institutions on which North America is built.

Maybe you like to write contemporary pieces that reflect what society is like today. Thomas King’s short story Borders is a great example of this. The story is a contemporary piece about an Indigenous woman who does not identify as Canadian or American, but Blackfoot. This is telling of the current struggle for Indigenous people to choose their own national identities instead of conforming to the colonial identities forced upon them.

Maybe you like writing speculative fiction, fantasy, science fiction etc. All of these genres can still give insight into the state of modern and/or past society. In N. K. Jemisin’s novel Fifth Series there are characters called “oregenes” who experience oppression based on the rest of the population’s ill-informed biases towards them. This is an accurate metaphor about how minorities are often treated poorly by people who are not properly educated.

No matter what genre or medium you choose, as a writer you have the power to describe society. You can praise the good things and more importantly, you can creatively call out its flaws. You have the power to teach your readers new ideas and inspire active change. I encourage you to call out injustices in your writing.

So no, my fellow creatives and I are not just studying the arts for fun, we are actively searching for the most effective way to describe society in order to promote positive change. And that is a career worth being proud of.