The Significance of Fictional Writing

Nonfictional writing has a purpose, sure, but have you ever stopped to smell the roses of fictional writing? One may argue that fictional writing is inferior because, well, it's fictional. But if that's so true, then can someone explain why J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter saga and Stephanie Meyer's Twilight got more hype than, say, Gifted Hands by Gregg Lewis, or Walking the Bible by Bruce Feiler? Don't worry, I'll wait...

A book or a story does not necessarily have to be informative or entirely factual in order to be a good story. In fact, a lot of good stories nowadays aren't. One thing fictional stories do better than nonfiction is get people thinking. With nonfiction, the amount of perspective or imagining you can do on a topic is limited because what's there is there. It can't be changed or altered, only accepted and built upon.
But fictional stories are the ones you can really take and run with. In any fictional story, the world is literally your playground. You won't have reality and facts telling you no every time you have a new take on something.
With fictional writing, you can really examine and ponder the symbols and representations of things. For example, in William Golding's Lord of the Flies, in the moments leading up to Piggy's murder, Jack and Ralph have a climatic confrontation, which is described as such: "Jack made a rush and stabbed at Ralph's chest with his spear. Ralph sensed the position of the weapon from the glimpse he caught of Jack's arm and put the thrust aside with his own butt. Then he brought the end round and caught Jack a stinger across the ear. They were chest to chest, breathing fiercely, pushing and glaring. 'Who's a thief?' 'You are!'" (Golding 177) Many would say that this represents the final clash between good and evil, between civilization and savagery. However, the possibilities of what this confrontation could represent are endless. These multiple representations are found in nearly every fictional story in existence. In nonfiction, the representations are much more limited. There may be some variety, but not nearly as much as one finds in fictional writing. In short, fictional writing can often be used to incite thinking, and stimulate the deeper parts of one's imagination.