I can honestly say that my new job has provided me with a new skill in my writing endeavours; multitasking.
I often find between the numerous questions and constant projects that I have to split my attention to make sure I don’t lose my thought in the middle of a new face-to-face question. Many times, I simply keep typing away as someone comes to my desk to ask me a question, but lately I’ve started to turn and face my visitor while I continued typing. Most of my team is accustomed to this by now, but it still manages to freak out other people that I can not only type without staring at the keyboard keys, but continue my thought without even looking at the computer monitor.
Of late, this new skill has allowed me to fall asleep in an entirely new manner. Cozy on my sofa, wrapped in my giant afghan, I sit with my laptop poised upon my thigh and against my knee and just write. The Xbox hums in the background as it struggles to present music through my television and I continue to write as if I were sitting at my desk, but far, far more comfortable. In this comfort, the hour grows later and later and, eventually, my eyes close and my head tilts to the side slightly as I lay in the beginning stages of sleep. All the while, however, my fingers do not stop. The stories continue, even with my eyes closed.
In this state of writing while in a semi-sleep state, the image appears in my mind far clearer than when my eyes are open. This scene, while in great need of clean-up, was written while I lay “asleep” and still typing:
He shuffled towards the low brick wall that ran a few feet away from the building while he let the blinding white fade from his eyes.
A warm wind caressed his cheeks and hair and for a moment he thought he was back in Crestview. The hot sun from what he had heard referred to as Indian Summer spread across his face filling him with a brief and mild swell of happiness he had not experienced since he first caught sight of the grey overcast of Cabot, Ohio.
As I re-read, the image seems even more powerful because I was able to imagine it without the added unpleasantness of my eyes trying to process images in my reality and subconscious at the same time.
For a few moments this evening, I found that I had actually fallen asleep in this half-asleep, half-dreaming, half-writing state…and I loved it. I can’t say it is completely practical or that I will be able to manage it consistently, but I just love the idea of it; writing myself to sleep. 🙂
I am kaitco 