Escapism is such a malleable and beautiful word. We all have our own versions of escapism, and in all honesty, I think we can all agree that the best kind of escape is a two-week vacation to our Happy Place. Given, we’re human, and we still need those little moments to getaway, to break out of the shell of working the 9-5, the mundane, the stacking bills, the problems inside and outside our ability to control and, let’s face it, our families and friends, too. Everyone has those escape pods they employ to blast out of – reality TV, sports, and video games are just a few varied examples.

For writers, though, I believe we have a different kind of escape. This isn’t saying that writers have it better, but there is a special sense of satisfaction, completion and exuberance that comes in how we escape from the bubble of our everyday. Most people would dread or shutter at the idea of writing as any kind of escape since most, understandably, look at it as work. Hard work. Well, it is. Anyone who feels that way has every right too, understandably, but this article is for all of my writing friends - and all the writers I haven’t befriended yet - who toil over the screen, the keyboard, the social networks, and most importantly, their dreams and the caverns of their imaginations.

Obviously, artists, sculptors, dancers, singers, musicians, actors and any other creative person has their own outlet they use in a similar kind of example. Even athletes use training and the love of their game as a way to break free, to be them wholly and without discretion. But with writing, there is a difference in the mental energy you expend, with the worlds you create, with the people you birth, the plots, troubles and situations you put these people in, from the opening lines all the way to the last word, the themes, the message and the ideas you want to share all burn inside your head. Think of Tolkien and the gobs of knowledge and language and creatures he packed into his books. Think of Lovecraft and the way he built his own mythology around vast and terrible beings throughout space and behind its darkened cloak. Think of the way you were moved in reading Richard Wright or the way you laughed in reading George Carlin or the way you were seduced in reading Anne Rice. The stories we write are windows into an alternate universe that we have perfect views of in our heads. Our heads, and no one else’s. With the story we write, we’re inviting the audience to come see what we’ve been seeing and meet who we’ve been talking too. There is such beauty in that for writers, because that is where the escapism lies, not just for you, but for every single one of your readers. For us, we’ve already visited these places and met these people. We know everything about them. Now, it’s our audience’s turn by getting a nice fat postcard from us in the form of a written story to move them, make them cry, or transform their way of thinking. It is the picture we paint, the movie we direct.

As writers, writing is the time when we are wholly us. When we can be us in the purest sense of the word, because we are not only pouring ourselves into a document, but we are showing others what is rattling round in our heads, how we feel, what we see, what scares us and what touches us. Richard Pryor used to be completely and unabashedly open to his audience and in so many words, we are doing the same with the expressions we write and the stories we tell, letting everyone in and showing the world and future generations what we have in our hearts.

Writing is hard work. It’s patient work and lonely work and can turn a lot of us very cynical very quickly. But there is so much hope in the written word, in the different novels and various ways we see ourselves and the society we’ve built for our children in the short time we are here. We are the lost photographs and home movies the future will uncover in the attic of history, to be looked upon with wonder as to what it was like to live during such a turning point of tragedies and joys, of ups and downs. So many people reenact living in the 1920’s, medieval times, the old west, the days of pirates, all of which are other means of escapism. Except, no one stops to think that someday people will be reenacting us. And yes, we will have the films, the music, the art and everything else to show how it was. But with writing, they will know how we felt, what we we’re thinking, too. They’ll know the depths of our pain, the heights of our worries and the intensity of our love.

As writers, we are the record keepers. When readers read us, our work is the vessel, the escape pod for future escapees. For the people who will need a break from their time and who will want to come back to ours to witness what was going on in our heads concerning the issues we faced and how we succeeded and failed at them. It’s incredible to think about, a circle of constant communication through the ages, from the dead to the living, from the past to the present.

So with this in mind, what will you write? What will you bring to the table, not only for your readers today who want escape, but for future generations, as well? Will you stand out as different? Will you add to the growing feast? Will you take them on a vacation they’ll never forget?

Will you let them escape?