Does writing change people?
It has changed me.
Whether you’re a novice or a seasoned writer, consider this: has the art of creative writing ever transformed your perspective or altered you in some profound way? The transformative power of creative writing is a fascinating concept to explore.
Let’s consider what this art form allows for a minute or two. As a creative writer, you live in two universes, one parallel to an actual.
For some, writing is still an artifice, akin to a game, and it is — like most things, like all of us — a construct to be shaped or played with.
Why we write is a question I’ve seen asked on Medium a hundred times. Not one time have I read a convincing answer. I don’t have one.
When everything is flowing, writing is absorbing and it can make you feel more alive – euphoric. The process focuses at the same time as it distracts; the routine of its absorption is addictive. It can also recreate in you something you may have lost without noticing, your sense of wonder.
It will come to no one’s surprise that I take no pleasure in precision, in working through the riddles of syntax, but I do pay attention to voice. I guess it’s a choice of what to lose and allow.
While creative writing is no panacea, I find its practice therapeutic, and I’ve read on Medium so many times that writing is a powerful aid to various types of therapy.
But I have a different question: Can creative writing possibly leave you feeling the opposite? Blind language, stillborn literature filling that
darker space towards a different pleasure. When writing feels more like anti-therapy than art therapy.
There have been times I have felt I must journey into an abyss to make truth through fiction and form. Such journeys can be unforgiving.
I consider it a privilege to be among some truly gifted writers here on Medium. I believe, too, that there are those of us who fit into paragraph three. We are here for all.
Thank you all for allowing me to go through this adventure with you as companions.
I’ll leave you with this, my favourite quote about writers and writing:
‘When it comes to atoms, language can be used only as in poetry. The poet, too, is not nearly so concerned with describing facts as with creating images.’ Niels Bohr
Do read this wonderful piece by our loved friend, Nancy Oglesby as a response to the above. Thank you, Nancy. 🤎
(No offense will be taken if you dislike being tagged for various reasons. Please let me know, and I’ll be sure it doesn’t happen on my posts again. If, on the other hand, you’d grace me by allowing a tag, I’d be thrilled to add you.)
