Close Your Eyes, Now Write

Have you ever tried it? Closed your eyes and written a scene? I hadn’t and never even thought of doing it, until last night.

It was almost midnight. I was exhausted. All these thought and visions swirled around in my head that were not well formed enough yet and I was certain if I waited, went to bed, they’d be gone.

The scene I was working on was a near-death-experience (NDE) scene for one of my characters. I just finished reading numerous, amazing accounts of real NDE’s online. My eyes closed and my fingers tapped the key board.

At first, I raised my eyebrows in a desperate effort to keep them open, but quickly gave up and figured, what the heck, this could be interesting.

It was strange not to see the letters appear on the screen in front of me, to trust that I was hitting the correct keys. I was certain I would open my eyes and find I’d written, amdla knfsl;d khr aweyra;k and have to start over. But after peeking a few times to find readable, full sentences I let my lids drop and my fingers fly.

It proved to be an enlightening and productive experience. Even more so because the NDE scene I wrote is purely visual and emotional, devoid of sound, touch, smell, or taste. By closing my eyes it heightened my own inner senses.

Cool, huh? Try it. You don't have to scrunch them shut like the boy in the picture, just saying. Unless you want to, of course. Let me know how it works for you.

(Follow this link if you want to read real NDE accounts.)