Writing in Your Mind

Meredith told me recently that she likes writing.  Thinking about her creative potential, I asked her if she ever tries writing stories.  She said, "Yes, I've tried before...well...in my mind."  Then she went on to say that a lot of times in school when she's supposed to be writing an essay, it appears to her teachers that she's not starting on her work and will come up to her and say, "Get to work, Meredith!" or tap her on the shoulder, startling her out of her thinking. 

She explained that it looks like she isn't doing anything, or spacing out, but what she is actually doing is composing her entire essay in her mind.  She literally sees her hands typing on a typewriter in her mind and the words come out on the screen.  Then, she takes time (mentally) to rearrange all the sentences, paragraphs, etc.  She has a checklist of all the things she has to do.  When she is all done, then she'll go to the computer and just copy what she already composed in her mind, literally just typing out what she sees. 

She said sometimes it's really funny because in order to stay out of trouble, she'll go to the computer and move her hands like she's typing (while she's thinking) and ends up getting a bunch of random letters on the screen.  It's all just a cover up because she has to compose in her mind, not on the screen.  

She also said she can understand how it looks like she's not doing anything from other people's point of view.  In fact, she can tell who all the visual thinkers are at school because she'll walk by and see kids staring off into space. 

It explains a lot of things for me.  Like teachers, I also nag her at home to get to work.  It's so confusing because she'll complain about being so stressed out about an essay she has to write, but she's not "doing" anything about it.  Now I understand that everyone in the house is probably distracting her from the work she is doing in her mind, thinking that she is "available" to do other things like take out the garbage.  She always cranks it out on the computer really quickly in the end, and now I know why.

My husband is the exact same way.  We worked in the same office for a couple of weeks once, and I was so embarrassed because it looked like he was just sitting around not doing anything; at the same time it was confusing because he always ultimately delivered.  He said he is still constantly misunderstood at work.  He has a hard time getting presentations done (in his mind), because it looks like he's not doing anything and people stop by to talk to him in his cube and then don't understand why he gets angry for them interrupting him.

These highly visual thinkers sure are misunderstood!!