Where do you place you eyes when typing?

[Craig CPM]

I often am not sure if I should look at the computer screen when I'm writing or look at something else. My experience is that each has pros and cons. When I watch the screen my typing is more precise and I make fewer mistakes, but when I look at something other than the screen I feel like my ideas sometimes flow better.

I am relatively new to the writing craft so I haven't figured out what works best. I am just wondering other people's experience...

[Miranda Clementine]

Everyone is different, so do whatever is best for you. I tend to not watch the screen, as you mentioned, the creativity flows better when I'm not watching for mistakes.

[Kitty Foyle]

The screen for me.

Same thing when I play the piano; I keep my eyes on the sheet music (until I have to turn the darn pages).

It probably depends on how skilled you are working the keyboard. If you're a hunt-and-pecker....(ooh, did that last word make it through? )

*_*

[Jena Grace]

Um...I have to look at the keys at least 75% of the time. I never did learn how to type correctly. I started writing stories on a typewriter (a manual Royal) when I was 9, and by the time I took typing (yeah, typing--not keyboarding) in junior high I was doomed for life.

[Miranda Clementine]

Same thing when I play the piano; I keep my eyes on the sheet music (until I have to turn the darn pages).

It probably depends on how skilled you are working the keyboard. If you're a hunt-and-pecker....(ooh, did that last word make it through? )

Do you have a problem with wood-peckers Kitty??

When I play the piano and clarinet, I always look at the sheet too, no matter how well I know the piece. It was different when I played the violin (notice the past tense, those things are harder to maintain) though, once I knew the notes I tended to drift.

[Keith .]

...If you're a hunt-and-pecker.... )

*_*

Leave it to Kitts to be a huntin' peckers when she should be a writing ...

[Kitty Foyle]

Leave it to Kitts to be a huntin' peckers when she should be a writing ...

And leave it to Klever Keith to come up with a good one!

Miranda queried, "Do you have a problem with wood-peckers Kitty??"

Although I adore Woody, I'm partial to Garfield.




*_*

[Miranda Clementine]

lol... That is a good one Keith (but you that when you typed it)

I need to get a bumper sticker like that for a friend of mine. She's always wrong yet thinks she's right.

[Amy Lou]

YEP look at the screen - Played piano for 8 years and like Kitty, I only look at the sheet music when playing! I guess I'm a wood- pecker hater too!

[Patrick Edwards]

I look at the screen...but then when I think "Wow, I'm doing this without looking at the keys," things go wildly astray. I'm not sure when/if my creativity is "bumped" when I look in a certain direction...but I imagine that, like Miranda mentioned up there, I am giving over some of my mind's power to looking for mistakes on the screen, which would take away the focus of the actual story-writing.