It hasn't happened to me in quite some time, but I've had these experiences while writing. The last one happened when I was working on my novel, THE TWIN.
I'm not a plotter, and I'm not a total pantser either. My books are not completely plotted out, detail by detail, but I'm not just winging it and writing by the seat of my pants.
So these experiences I mentioned...there are times, I sit down to write, maybe with a lunch, a sandwich. I begin to work, following the very loose notes I've made. I'm working..I'm working...and then suddenly I look past my computer monitor, and the room is dark. Having sat down at noon, munching and writing, and then all at once, it's evening and many hours have passed.
I don't mean this in a figurative sense, but instead in a "lost time" sort of thing. Like an alien abduction, you know, except no aliens and probes and whatnot.
The entire house is dark, with no lights turned on. My sandwich is gone, and there are 8000 new words in the novel. Weirder still, I start to go back to read what was written, without any memory of what I wrote, and the quality is higher than my usual first pass AND there are plot points that I hadn't planned.
Then I realize how badly I need to go to the washroom, how parched I am, and how stiff I am.
As I mentioned, this doesn't happen that often, and hasn't happened in years. And I miss it.
Anyone have any theories as to what that is? I've already excluded the possibility of aliens. When someone mentions being in the zone, that's what I think of, I think of those times when that sort of thing has happened to me. I chase it and want to experience it again, even though I have only the memories of right before and right after, with no memories of the actual writing.
I would love to know what you think is happening when that occurs. Please comment and let me know.
That has happened to me many times when painting, but not in just that way when writing, although I think what I'm going to describe falls into the same category. I get a vague feeling, not quite a full blown sensation, that something is "coming" to me...something to be written. In order to access that something, I must shut down ego consciousness and give myself over to another level of consciousness that's receptive to such things, so that the writing that's coming can reach me. When I do that, it's almost like entering a trance state, because nothing else exists except the writing while I'm getting it on paper. When it's finished, and I return to my normal state of consciousness, I feel as though I've been meditating for a long time, clear headed and refreshed. I've never known whether or not writing that comes to me in this way is coming from within or without. It certainly feels like it's coming from without, but it's hard to tell.
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