What is the point of writing?

A frustrating weekend working on a story that did not work out. It had an OK beginning but I could not give it a satisfactory ending… What exactly is the point of writing? Montreal just had an election and the mayor was re-elected despite obviously having awarded millions in contracts to crooked Mafia companies. That is more important than writing. World leaders will convene in Copenhagen to try and hammer out a deal on climate change. That seems more important than writing. The war in Afghanistan is not going well. That’s more important than writing.

Writing is navel-gazing and time-wasting.

But I did at least have an epiphany. I keep reverting to writing about the same type. To be blunt, a loser. The plot-line revolves around this person wrestling with / acknowledging / suffering as a result of his insecurity.

I need to stop writing about this type. He has outlived his usefulness.

Instead, I need to write about somebody who confidently speaks in a booming voice, finds a missing cat, saves the girl who fell down the well, learns to shoot a gun, confronts a gangster, can raise his leg over his head. Somebody a bit more heroic. Somebody who would not sit around second-guessing the utility of writing.