Ⓥ Imaginary Activism

I find myself going back and forth a lot about whether or not I want to try to be a writer, as in actually write novels. I constantly have all of these ideas that I think have the potential to be good stories, but the process of actually turning an idea into a full book seems rather daunting. I think the thing that has really stopped me from putting in the effort is the fact that I'm not sure how good I would actually feel about it after the fact. I just want what I do to have an impact on the world, to make things better in some way. I'm just not sure whether I really believe that fiction can do that or not.

I sometimes think how great it would be to write books about vegans and animal rights activist; not vegan or animal rights books, but books about other things with vegan and activist characters. I feel like vegans tend to either be 1- completely ignored, 2- mocked, or 3- vilified, in most forms of entertainment, and I find that really troubling. I sometimes think it would really help the cause if there were interesting, likable characters who just happened to also be vegan. But then I wonder how much difference that would actually make. I know I, personally, have been deeply affected by fictional characters, but I wonder whether many other people have or not.

Is it possible to affect change in the real world by creating a fictional world? Would writing characters who care about the fate of nonhuman animals inspire real people to care as well? Would non-vegans even be open to reading about vegan characters? I really don't know. Sometimes I feel like it's worth a shot, and other times I think that I should be focusing my efforts on more concrete forms of activism.

The first example of a vegan character that comes to mind is this guy, and he wasn't much of a role-model for vegans or anyone else.