I find the detail about making sure nobody is looking at your phone screen so amusing. I’m always concerned about that too, but have never looked at another stranger’s screen.
Same! Especially when I wrote I Hear You Watching, I was acting as if the eavesdropper would have the context of the rest of the book to feel embarrassed for me. When really it wouldn’t have made any sense at all!
There are some embarrassing or bizarre individual sentences, but otherwise I think watching someone type something on their phone would be excruciatingly boring most of the time.
I'm impressed you can write on the train or on a bus (vodka and Fanta and all!). I can jot notes down that I'll use later but I can't concentrate to real writing because of the overstimulation that I definitely lean into. I'm a people-watcher to a fault. Humans fascinate me.
All that public transportation is perfect for people watching, and now that I’m not so worried about people watching me (haha) I do my fair share. Sometimes I can imagine narration in my head as I watch, and I replay it with little corrections and word swaps.
But when I was working on the novel, it was an imperative. I’ll also add that any time I’ve tried writing something longer on my phone I’ve gotten frustrated with the slowness of using the little screen keyboard and the inability to see more of the page on-screen. So in this next book I probably won’t do as much phone writing. We’ll see.
Oh, I enjoyed reading this. And believe it or not, there's Alex's vibe here in the constant reference to avoiding being watched, or concerns about the possibility of being seen etc. I had a friend who used to write on the ferry on the way to work. When my daughter was a toddler, I would write on my driving lesson days when my mum was staying with her. In other words, I took the whole day away, rather than just the time needed to do the driving lesson. When she was in her early months I used to be typing with one finger while she lay asleep on my lap. I dared not put her down, lest she woke and disturbed my writing.
Haha, yes, I didn’t notice the Alex-ness of this until I’d finished it. I had initially called it “Day of the Imminent Writer,” because I’m preparing for a novel, but then I changed it to “Secret Writer,” haha.
It’s wonderful to be able to take those days as a parent. Gives the kid time with their grandparents, and you time with yourself, and let’s be honest, we love our children to death and don’t want to be away too long, but absence indeed makes the heart grow fonder. Those little bits of space are invigorating for both sides.
And that closeness when they’re very young is wonderful too. Something about parental sleep deprivation helps disable that higher-order second-guessing. And while they’re asleep the pomodoro is ticking, we’ve got to get down whatever words we can!
Secret Writer works much better than Imminent Writer. :-) I’m a tired writer now. Too old for sleep deprivation … was stubbornly drafting something unimportant that nobody will read, mostly so Medium won’t kick me off their MPP - so that one day when I write something the algorithm actually wants people to read I can earn some money. lol. That’s my joke for today. Please laugh.
Thank you! The Witch existed in this idea before Brujas, but your work provided further inspiration. You and @Hylia Corvidae have given me lots of food for thought regarding this project of mine. Thank you both.
I find the detail about making sure nobody is looking at your phone screen so amusing. I’m always concerned about that too, but have never looked at another stranger’s screen.
Same! Especially when I wrote I Hear You Watching, I was acting as if the eavesdropper would have the context of the rest of the book to feel embarrassed for me. When really it wouldn’t have made any sense at all!
There are some embarrassing or bizarre individual sentences, but otherwise I think watching someone type something on their phone would be excruciatingly boring most of the time.
I'm impressed you can write on the train or on a bus (vodka and Fanta and all!). I can jot notes down that I'll use later but I can't concentrate to real writing because of the overstimulation that I definitely lean into. I'm a people-watcher to a fault. Humans fascinate me.
All that public transportation is perfect for people watching, and now that I’m not so worried about people watching me (haha) I do my fair share. Sometimes I can imagine narration in my head as I watch, and I replay it with little corrections and word swaps.
But when I was working on the novel, it was an imperative. I’ll also add that any time I’ve tried writing something longer on my phone I’ve gotten frustrated with the slowness of using the little screen keyboard and the inability to see more of the page on-screen. So in this next book I probably won’t do as much phone writing. We’ll see.
Oh, I enjoyed reading this. And believe it or not, there's Alex's vibe here in the constant reference to avoiding being watched, or concerns about the possibility of being seen etc. I had a friend who used to write on the ferry on the way to work. When my daughter was a toddler, I would write on my driving lesson days when my mum was staying with her. In other words, I took the whole day away, rather than just the time needed to do the driving lesson. When she was in her early months I used to be typing with one finger while she lay asleep on my lap. I dared not put her down, lest she woke and disturbed my writing.
Haha, yes, I didn’t notice the Alex-ness of this until I’d finished it. I had initially called it “Day of the Imminent Writer,” because I’m preparing for a novel, but then I changed it to “Secret Writer,” haha.
It’s wonderful to be able to take those days as a parent. Gives the kid time with their grandparents, and you time with yourself, and let’s be honest, we love our children to death and don’t want to be away too long, but absence indeed makes the heart grow fonder. Those little bits of space are invigorating for both sides.
And that closeness when they’re very young is wonderful too. Something about parental sleep deprivation helps disable that higher-order second-guessing. And while they’re asleep the pomodoro is ticking, we’ve got to get down whatever words we can!
Secret Writer works much better than Imminent Writer. :-) I’m a tired writer now. Too old for sleep deprivation … was stubbornly drafting something unimportant that nobody will read, mostly so Medium won’t kick me off their MPP - so that one day when I write something the algorithm actually wants people to read I can earn some money. lol. That’s my joke for today. Please laugh.
I laughed!
I'm glad you agree about "Secret Writer." And I identify with "Tired Writer" with every frayed fiber of my being.
Enjoyed this!
Thank you!
Thank you! The Witch existed in this idea before Brujas, but your work provided further inspiration. You and @Hylia Corvidae have given me lots of food for thought regarding this project of mine. Thank you both.
Me too! [hard gulp]