Being watched...

[Glen]

I find it terribly difficult to write if I think someone can see what I'm writing. I do a bit of a commute on a train and am ok when the carriage is empty, but once I think someone might be looking over my shoulder I think about that more than about what I'm writing.

Just wondering if others are the same...or am I being weird? More importantly, if you are the same as this, how do get round it to maximise your writing time?

 

[Darkchild130]

I too hate this, fortunately I have all day to write whilst on leave and the wife is at work. When at work (I work all over the world) I get 8 hours downtime between shifts so again, alone time is not an issue.

 

[The Judge]

I can't write if someone is in the same room, let alone able to look over my shoulder! I can just about cope with my other half being there, but even he has to sit on the other sofa, well away from me, and creating new stuff is difficult, since I can't get in character with him present.

Fortunately, I'm practically a hermit, and I don't have the horrors of commuting, so it's not a problem for me. On odd occasions I have taken writing work to do when I've been travelling by train, but it's editing not creating, and I take a print out and scribble over it -- and I'd defy anyone to read my handwriting in those circumstances.

Can you wedge yourself in a corner, so no one can see the laptop screen? or can you reduce the size of the screen, so there's only two lines on there at any one time? Can you hand-write -- preferably shorthand -- and decipher it later? Could you just compose in your head and make bullet points rather than perfect sentences?

 

[Jo Zebedee]

I write in utter chaos. There are kids everywhere, and they come and go and I have to chase them from the screens in case they are corrupted by my foul mouthed characters. My office is beside the front door of the house, so they come and go past it all the time.

Suffice to say, I have no real problems if anyone wants to watch me write. I'd probably point out the paint drying is considerably more fun, though.

 

[prizzley]

I find it terribly difficult to write if I think someone can see what I'm writing.

Have you tried a banner headline on the lines of MYOB NOSEY PARKER!

 

[Tyburn]

You could just start to write extremely bad S&M slash-fiction using the person reading over your shoulder as the submissive. Plenty of spanking and shoving things in holes they're not supposed to go, then turn to them and wink suggestively. Works great on public transport, so I'm told.

 

[jastius]

perhaps they are just correcting your grammar in their heads..?

there are privacy screens for laptops you can get. you could pull an ernest Hemmingway and write in a teeny notebook,(I believe they call them moleskins) then type it up later. there are even computer pens you can get that store handwriting and you then download directly what you have written as a pdf file then transpose that with adobe acrobat into a word format. though bad handwriting seems to give it a lot of hiccups.

you could try using a very small tablet. while they are crap to type on, the screen is undecipherable except upon the plane of vision of the user.

if someone is watching you and you are uncomfortable about it, taking control of the situation by acknowledging them is often the best course.
either they are looking at you because they think you are interesting, or you are simply in the pathway of someone's two thousand mile stare, their brain having gone to sleep. people will very likely back off if you catch them in the course of having their pleasant little daydream about you.
look at it this way glen, their good sense has been overcome by the very sight of your charming self

 

[Chel]

I handwrite on the train to work. I have no problems with it - until I get back home and try to decipher what I have written.

I figure since no one else on the train knows what I'm writing anyway, I mean, it could be the next Harry Potter, or it could be a letter to my cousin's daughter for all they know, so why should they care?

However, if I write at home, I prefer to write when I'm alone. The husband is just distracting, even when he tries his best not to be. It's actually more me being curious about what HE is doing, than he trying to look over my shoulder.

 

[Ursa major]

I'm easily interrupted, but I don't care whether someone can see me typing. (Not that I generally carry my laptop around with me - and I manage without a tablet or smartphone - so the occasion doesn't arise that often.)

I find it terribly difficult to write if I think someone can see what I'm writing. I do a bit of a commute on a train and am ok when the carriage is empty, but once I think someone might be looking over my shoulder I think about that more than about what I'm writing.

This must be really irritating for those (in, say, the NSA) who are waiting to look through what you write....

 

[Mr Orange]

i write a lot on my commute on the train and when handwriting the first draft its not such an issue as i know people can't really read what i'm writing. when typing up the second draft or editing i don't find it too offputting unless people are obviously reading what i am writing. then i get really distracted

 

[mm1145]

when I was writing on the trian I had to make sure I sat in a set where pepole could not look over my shoulder. even when I was not writing bad slash fiction.

 

[D-E-M-Emrys]

Easy fix for the train conundrum.

Bold, font size 48, type the words:

I'M WATCHING YOU TOO!

 

[Glen]

...then turn to them and wink suggestively.

Laughed at loud on the train this morning when I read this. That's called a LOL in modern parlance.

Good ideas from The Judge there too. I try most of those when I can (sitting with no-one behind me, leaving only a line or two visible) but usually when I get to that point I am thinking more about hiding the writing than actually writing.

Really, I am sure no-one cares about what's on my screen, but a part of me thinks the folk behind me are thinking, he's writing about giants and spaceships, lol.

My handwriting is imaginative and exceptional, and totally unreadable, so I can certainly plan, and even sometimes rough out scenes, but the typing part, well, I can do some in the early part of a journey...

 

[steve12553]

I've never worked anywhere where a train would be an available means of transportation. I've never had any choice but either to drive a car or ride with someone else and carpooling rarely works with my inconsistent hours. I usually have several 4 legged savages in the room waiting for an opportunity to catch my eye and demand a treat. On the other hand they tend to sleep 16 to 18 hours a day so quiet is possible.

 

[TheDustyZebra]

Really, I am sure no-one cares about what's on my screen, but a part of me thinks the folk behind me are thinking, he's writing about giants and spaceships, lol.

But just think what they might imagine you're writing if they CAN'T read any of it -- it could be a whole lot worse!