Wednesday, June 4, 2014

Writer Brain

Hey guys.  I just wanted to stop by and let you know that I am currently experiencing writer brain.  If you're not familiar with this condition, it goes something like this...

Hip deep in the words of a world of my own creation, I forget stuff.  Oddly enough, one of the things I forget is words.  Not in writing, mind you.  In speaking.  So when I go to say something out loud, the words aren't there.  I suspect this is because they're all tied up on the pages.  In the biz, this is called 'word finding difficulty' or to use a technical term it's 'anomic aphasia'.  I have it anyway, but right now, it's especially bad.  And bless my Hubs' heart for the painfully slow conversations lately.  (I already apologized and he gave me one of those happy laughs and told me it was okay and that the writing comes first.)

Writer brain also means I get distracted easily.  Again, poor Hubs is the soul of patience because we can be smack in the middle of a conversation and I'll start thinking about the story instead of what we're talking about.  Then he'll say something to me, but I'll be staring off into space wondering if it would be better to end the scene this way or that way or the other way altogether.

This last thing is also making it really hard for me to fall asleep lately.  I mean, I lay down with every intention of sleeping.  Some nights I'm so tired that I have a tough time keeping my eyes open.  Until I turn out the lights and lay down.  Then my brain seems to think it's party time.  Scenes and ideas and plot twists and dialogue...  And then I get back up again to write stuff down so I won't lose it by morning.  Which restarts the whole process of trying to fall asleep again.

Which reminds me, the other night, I laid out the opening scenes for Djinn4 - regardless of the fact that I haven't sold the first one yet, edited the second or even finished the third.  (I did not write that down and have since forgotten it, but that's for the best, for now.)

So, if you know a writer who has any of the above symptoms, be patient.  And if you're a writer in the throes of this, be patient with yourself.  And... Crap, I forgot how I was going to end this post.

Damn writer brain.


3 comments:

  1. LOL! When that happens to me, I say my dictionary went on strike. It's nice to know it has a technical name.

    Yay for your patient hubs, and yay for the story flowing into words on the page!

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  2. And here I thought it was just old age. I like this better. Thanks! :)

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  3. I've been calling them "senior moments" or just part of the whole menopause thing, but now I'm going to call it writer brain and it sounds soooo much better. Thank you ma'am!

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