I’m looking for something to write about tonight and so far I have nothing. Some nights are like that. I say nights because that is, mostly, when I write. I’m a morning person so that is a little opposite for me. Well maybe not since it makes sense that I’d write at night. After all I have to work during the day like everyone else so when else would I write?
Yet I think that I might write better at night. That’s the opposite part. I draw and do everything else better between the hours of 8 AM to 2 PM. Once the clock hits 3 PM my concentration isn’t what it once was. I’m better after 6 PM and can make my way through stuff then if I have to but after 10 PM I’m nearly useless.
I’ve never pulled an “all-nighter” in my life. They are just counter productive for me. I don’t gain any time on a deadline staying up late. I mess things up and make mistakes when I’m tired. I’ve always been better off going to bed and getting some rest.
All that does make it a little odd that I think I write better at night. Maybe it’s the quiet. All my other work, whether I’m drawing or on the computer, I do amongst noise. I’ll have music, the TV, the radio, a podcast, or something on to listen to. But for writing I need some quiet to hear the words in my head.
Isn’t it odd that to see lines on a paper when I’m drawing I prefer to listen to things? Sometimes the quiet gets in the way of my concentration when I’m doing that. If it’s too quiet my mind starts to wander away. It drifts outside of the confines of the paper I’m drawing on and I can’t get anything done. I daydream instead of draw.
Yet when I’m writing I have to turn all the noise off. It doesn’t have to be dead quiet but I don’t want any music or voices in the room with me. The words in my head don’t come if there are other people talking. Even music that is all instrumental is no good. I can write through it easier than if there were vocals but still that makes it hard to concentrate.
It could also be the dim lights at night that help my writing. When drawing I need all the light I can get. I like working in front of a window with the world going by outside. It helps my concentration. But when I write everything visual becomes a distraction. The TV being on, even with it muted, becomes too much of a distraction when I try to write. At night when the blinds are closed I can write easier.
I’ve been learning to touch type recently and that has been a huge distraction. I can see why people never bother to learn to touch type once they’re past school age. It’s real real slow when you start out. People who learn to touch type in school probably aren’t trying to concentrate on writing as they’re learning to touch type. It’s two different tasks at once.
I’ve been doing it for a few weeks and I’m up to only twelve words a minute. That is way slower than my brain is going as I write. I’m probably three times as fast as that when hunting and pecking. I keep switching between the styles of typing because the my touch type slowness is frustrating and impeding my writing.
Since the writing in the main purpose of my typing I have to go back to hunting and pecking at times when my brain wants to speed up. I also notice that though my writing is better at night my touch typing gets worse the later it gets. It’s a weird situation but I still haven’t given up on touch typing. Maybe someday my speed will increase but not yet.
I looked up on the internet how to touch type and one site said that a person should be up to speed in about a week but I took that with a grain of salt. Unless that is a week of typing six hours a day I doubt anyone would be up to their eventual full speed of touch typing in their spare time.
So that’s the state of writing with me.
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