Okay, weird question, I know! I'm an incredibly visual person and I find it really difficult to write scenes without sitting and visualizing (daydreaming ) about them in detail before hand. I'll usually just sit with the lights off, for hours sometimes, picturing everything before I go to write. But recently I've found myself just closing my eyes and typing out the story as I visualize it, rather than afterwards. It's really helped how much I write in a sitting, as well as upping the quality of environment descriptions and character personalities. I get less of that 'stuck on a sentence staring at a blank page for twenty minutes' thing as well. It just flows so much better. Does anyone else do this?
Yep I do it, it's not really a weird question. I do it more when I'm stuck and let my imagination take over or when I'm trying to concentrate on a good story and write it down without distractions. I would write a few pages and read through it to see how good it went. I also write better at night or early in the morning. This probably has to do with the fact that I'm alone in a room and the kids are asleep.
I've never tried this. I'm not sure I'm good enough at touch typing to do it well. I do like to type with the lights low, and without looking at my hands - the words seem to appear by magic on the screen in front of me, and the interface between my brain and the text on the screen seems to disappear. What I think, appears. I stop being aware of my hands on the keyboard.
Sounds to me like you're pretty good at touch typing! I've taken a lot of typing classes (why have I done this? I have no idea. It just happened.) So I can type pretty damn fast without having to look at the keyboard at all. I've also played piano since I was 5, so organized finger movements without looking comes pretty easy. That's kind of what I mean though, my wording improves when I'm less focused on the page and more focused on the scene in my head. I make more spelling errors, sure, but those are easy to go back and fix. I try I do have experience with cars becoming friendly with trees, though, so I'd probably recommend against driving with your eyes closed.
I can type with my eyes closed, but I haven't tried this. I think it's because the images in my head and the words and letters on-screen are so strongly entwined that I need to see them just as much as I need to see the scene in my head. It might come down to inexperience, like, I just can't connect the right words or syntax with the picture immediately so that I could do this... Or at least I'd write very slowly! I do write a lot, so it's not like I'm dilly-dallying with a word choice for an hour or anything, but I associate the image of the words with the images in my head, so it feels natural to see the letters and "see" the scenes in my head. However, if I went blind, I don't think I'd stop writing. Then I'd just "see" both the letters and the scenes with my mind's eye, or I might stop "seeing" the letters altogether. If that makes any sense...
Well, I am good at touch-typing. I might give this a try, when I find myself stuck next time. I think visualising a scene is the key to getting it 'down' and this might just be another way to do it. Intriguing. I often shut my eyes when I'm listening to music. This might be a similar thing.
I'm not all that good. I have the technique of a computer programmer - I'm fast, but because I don't keep my hands in the same standard positions all the time, I make a lot of errors. The faster I go, the more backspacing I usually have to do. I took piano lessons when I was about five and stuck with it about two years. I became an avid guitarist, though, and I play guitar with my eyes closed all the time - I even forget what key I'm in and just wail on the darn thing. It's only when I'm done, and I open my eyes, that I see where my hand is and I think, "D flat? I never play in D flat!"
It must be a strange experience to read it back, especially if you accidentally mis-positioned your hand halfway
I read that Aldous Huxley, who was going blind, used to balance his typewriter on his knees and let loose. He'd have to have someone read the text back to him to make sure he hadn't mis-positioned his hands, because he couldn't see what he'd written.
That totally makes sense. I guess I sort of narrate to myself in my head, so I'm kind of seeing the words as well as the images when I do it. Definitely give it a shot! Interestingly, I usually listen to music when I'm writing (instrumental, lyrics just distract me), but the times I find myself writing with my eyes closed to visualize I have to turn the music off because I so often shut my eyes to listen to music as well, so it gets more distracting rather than acting as a neutral sort of background. I used to type like that before I took typing classes, I was really quick but there was absolutely no method to the madness, which resulted in a lot of errors! Learning to type correctly was probably one of the best things I ever did for my writing freed up a lot of brainspace that I was using to concentrate on the actual work of typing. I so wish I could play guitar! My younger brother plays guitar beautifully, and he's successfully taught me maybe three songs, but otherwise I just can't get my fingers to cooperate. But when it comes to piano, I definitely know what you mean. It seems the more I let go, the easier it is to play, whereas if I focus too hard I'm more likely to stumble and lost my place. Sometimes my hand just scoots itself over one key to the left and when I open my eyes to read through it starts ti kiij kuje U hyst webt ubsabe gave===wat tgriyg tge oage!
I never did it, but it's possible. " Hellan Keller " was a writer, a great Novelist. So you also can do that - if you try!
And then you close your eyes and try to visualise what in heck it was you meant when you wrote that...
Hey, waitaminnit. If putting little bumps on the F and J keys helps you find them, then why don't we put bumps on all the keys? That way, we could find all of them and never have to worry about typos ever again! Right? RIGHT?? There is NOTHING AT ALL WRONG WITH THIS IDEA! (Oh, there is? Really? Um, never mind. )
@minstrel : maybe this is the case when less is more Using a speech recognition program may be even better. There are really good ones out there (Windows has it built in from Windows 7 and up), at least for the english language.
