A safe haven is a place of solace, an escape from reality, a means of transcendence. The average writer consumes gallons of caffeine a day, types mystifying phrases in their notes app, and sits down in a dimly lit room to create their next best work of art. Imagine being able to create a world that soars past what people think they know about the physical world. At its best writing is a transformation of both reality and ourselves.
Of course not everyone feels the act of creating changes them as a person the way I do, but the emotional connection most artists have with their work is undeniable. Personally, I feel safe inside the craft of writing itself because it feels like a privilege and a gift to be able to share the knowledge I’ve unlocked. The journey into my safe haven leads me to gain more understanding about myself and the world.
When I write, I go through three stages of transformation. The first is to figure out what environment I want to sit in when crafting. Then, dissociation consumes me in a way where I am no longer aware of my surroundings, only of the words on the page. And lastly, I become my own safe haven no longer restrained by real life. This last stage can be very flexible to however a person sees the endgame of their haven. From talking with other writers disassociation could be like entering a dystopian world or similarly to how I feel, “entering a space inside flesh and letting it sing.”
I wanted to know more specifically what writing was like for other writers. So I asked a singular question that does not have a definite answer: “When you're writing, how does your creative process break worldly boundaries?”
*Responses have been edited for length and clarity.
ANONYMOUS STUDENT
“I enter the world of whatever I’m writing during the process. Since it’s usually dystopic or fantasy, it’s definitely breaking ‘normal world’ boundaries. I never stay in the present when I write. Always the past or the future. I see the scenes I write unfold in front of me.”
ANONYMOUS STUDENT
“Whenever I write, mainly fiction, I envision everything playing out as if it were a movie. I view everything through the eyes of a camera. I noticed when it comes to poetry, I come back to certain experiences and relive them. I find myself analyzing the emotions of it and trying to make it digestible somehow.”
It was interesting hearing the writers I spoke with having different experiences with their writing. Transformation may help rationalize uncomfortable emotions that someone wants to express or help them embody a future that hasn’t been written yet.
I believe transcendence in relation to transformation is effortless with time, almost like a spiritual untethering from the known universe. There’s a cinematic glamor of the idea of finding a safe haven, a process everyone deserves to experience.
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Art by Serena Y. Cheng