How many here have struggled to “return to their story”? You sit at your table, pen in hand or fingers on the keyboard, but you’re not “ready” to write yet. You don’t “feel” the characters, or their world.
So you review what you’ve written; you do some random low pressure writing exercise, or maybe you just start “babbling” into your medium, and slowly, you feel yourself “returning to that world”. You can “feel” the characters, and “see” their world. Then something snaps you back. Someone has opened the door, walked into the room, and asked you a question, and just like that you’re “awake”. And part of you realizes there’s no quick route back to that “other place”.
This is often how I feel when I set out to write, particularly fiction. And for that reason, I think there’s a way that we can almost compare writing (particularly story writing) to a type of dream state. Or, if you prefer, a hypnotic state, or any form of role playing/LARP. In each case our minds are carefully focused on a world other than the one we physically occupy.
And just like when we are asleep, it’s easy for a loud noise or determined “interruption” to “snap us back”, an experience that is jarring, and one that makes it quite difficult to “fall back to sleep”.
I think this says a lot about why I’m drawn to writing late at night, when the world in general tends to “fall asleep,” and leave me with a quiet that I can use to return to “my worlds,” and continue my stories. And I think it explains why I often feel so frustrated when someone repeatedly interrupts me, each time a brief question, then they go, leaving me alone for 10 or even 20 minutes, just long enough to “start to drift off”, and then they’re back.
What do others think?
Do you find that you need a little time to “drift” back into that special state of mind, where “this world” feels less real, and your own world comes to the forefront?
Do you feel a jarring sense of “interruption” when a loud noise, or insistent question, jerks you back?
Do you ever feel disorientated when you first “come back”, and someone repeats their question, but you’re still not ready to understand what they’re saying, or what it means?
This post was written for the Author Toolbox Blog Hop where we share our new discoveries on the craft of writing, editing, querying, marketing, publishing, and blogging tips. Posted every third Wednesday of the month. For rules and sign-up click here.
