Seeing is Writing . . . apparently
I don't really consider myself superstitious. I don't have favorite shirts or socks or methods that get me into the writing day. I have a routine, of sorts, which sometimes works better than others. But it's just that -- a routine. Nothing more.
But there are, it turns out, certain things I need in order to write. Like a keyboard or a pencil.
And glasses.
I can see. Don't get me wrong. In fact my eyes have never been better. I'm typing this right now without my glasses. I have been wandering around all day without my glasses. I went grocery shopping and ran errands and managed to find everything on the list I took along (and could read) without my glasses.
But I can't seem to write without them. I need to stare at the screen through them in order for the creative juices to flow. Otherwise my fingers become paralyzed. My brain dries up. The words clog somewhere on the way to my fingertips. I can't write. Because the screen doesn't look the same.
Or maybe I just don't think it does. And I can't get used to it. It wasn't like this with the first eye op. But then that eye didn't have much astigmatism in it. It wasn't like looking at the world through a fun-house mirror (albeit a crisply clear one). This eye is.
Words do odd things. They disappear for one thing. One minute they're there -- and the next they're not. They have fallen into the black hole of astigmatism (at least I hope to God that's what it is) and then, whoops, they reappear on the other side. Very odd.
I am looking forward to going to see the doc on Wednesday to tell him my sad tale. How I can see incredibly well (except for the occasional word or ocean liner disappearing into a minute black hole of crystal clear waviness) and I can't write. I'm hoping he'll say that the eye has stabilized enough to give me a new prescription for this eye. I really hoping A LOT.
Because Spence has ideas. He has plans. But somehow I can't get them to come out my fingertips at the moment. So . . . Wednesday.
Spence and I can hardly wait.
But there are, it turns out, certain things I need in order to write. Like a keyboard or a pencil.
And glasses.
I can see. Don't get me wrong. In fact my eyes have never been better. I'm typing this right now without my glasses. I have been wandering around all day without my glasses. I went grocery shopping and ran errands and managed to find everything on the list I took along (and could read) without my glasses.
But I can't seem to write without them. I need to stare at the screen through them in order for the creative juices to flow. Otherwise my fingers become paralyzed. My brain dries up. The words clog somewhere on the way to my fingertips. I can't write. Because the screen doesn't look the same.
Or maybe I just don't think it does. And I can't get used to it. It wasn't like this with the first eye op. But then that eye didn't have much astigmatism in it. It wasn't like looking at the world through a fun-house mirror (albeit a crisply clear one). This eye is.
Words do odd things. They disappear for one thing. One minute they're there -- and the next they're not. They have fallen into the black hole of astigmatism (at least I hope to God that's what it is) and then, whoops, they reappear on the other side. Very odd.
I am looking forward to going to see the doc on Wednesday to tell him my sad tale. How I can see incredibly well (except for the occasional word or ocean liner disappearing into a minute black hole of crystal clear waviness) and I can't write. I'm hoping he'll say that the eye has stabilized enough to give me a new prescription for this eye. I really hoping A LOT.
Because Spence has ideas. He has plans. But somehow I can't get them to come out my fingertips at the moment. So . . . Wednesday.
Spence and I can hardly wait.
posted by Anne McAllister at 10:55 PM
1 Comments:
wow. that is so strange! when i went from a typewriter to a computer i had a hard time writing for a while. the same thing happened when i went from a desktop to a laptop. maybe it's kind of like that....
Post a Comment
<< Home