I did a lot of writing on Saturday, and a whack of revision on Sunday. As often happens when I’ve spent a lot of time and emotional energy working on a story, I found that long after I’d stepped away from the computer physically, I was still very much there mentally. Jo noticed that I wasn’t quite myself and I tried to explain, but my mind and attention being divided I’m not sure I did a good job.

I was still crawling out of the story.

When I first step away from the computer I’m still very deliberately and consciously thinking about the story I’d been working on. Should I do this, or that? How would that character really react to the other thing? Making mental notes of things I need to remember to add, change or take out. Making physical notes in case my mental ones fail. However, even after I’m done that and I’m not deliberately thinking about the work, I am disconnected from reality.

Not completely. You don’t need to call me a shrink, but that part of me which is always sort of outside myself (really, don’t call a shrink) observing things and taking notes is bigger than usual. I feel like I’m wading through a thick mental fog, and it takes some time to clear.

It doesn’t always happen, and seems to be mostly after the more intense writing/revising sessions I have. It’s an interesting phenomena, one I need to consider more in order to describe better perhaps. Anyway, I thought I’d share 🙂

Writers, tell me sometimes this happens to you too. What about people with different occupations and hobbies, do you expirience something similar, or do writers have the market cornered on this one?