A Growing Frustration

Yes, I’ve had trouble blogging lately. You’d be right to assume a certain amount of it is blog fatigue, but another culprit is at work as well. Namely, my eyesight.

It seems I can’t work at my laptop for any significant length of time without eyestrain in the form of blurred vision. Now, I don’t think anything pathological is happening to my eyes. I suspect it’s simply a matter of needing trifocals for my work. My laptop sits in arms length away from my eyes, which constitutes the mid-range vision that trifocals provide. And since my current prescription doesn’t compensate for that, I get blurry-eyed pretty easily. Next week, I’ll see my optometrist and press for the appropriate solution.

Struggling forward, I’m trying something new to keep up with blogging. I’m using voice-recognition software to compose my posts. For the most part, the software works well, but the real adjustment is in thinking out loud. I’ve been composing at a keyboard as a writer for thirty years now, dating back to when I was a technical writer right out of college. I had access to word processor before secretaries did. Heck, I had access to word processor before personal computers existed in the workplace. So to suddenly compose aloud is a far bigger cognitive shift than I expected.

Consequently, it’s almost impossible to write fiction aloud, so I’m trying it for blogging where the stream-of-conscience thought process is more conversational and far less intense.

We’ll see how this works out based on how often I blog. More entries means I’m making the adjustment fairly well; less entries means, well, less success. I’m going to give it a try because ultimately it may help with everything from blogging to e-mail to writing letters to my family. Here’s hoping!

And I’ll let you know when the new eyeglasses are on order.