I’ve coined the term writer’s blockout to explain the phenomena that I’ve been experiencing.  Writer’s blockout is the state that a writer is in when s/he is having a surge of inspiration.  In this state you’re barely aware of your surroundings.  Your ears are tuned out, your eyes are fixed on your notebook, and your pen moves your hand and not vise versa.  You have blocked out almost everything in your enviroment.

I re-read a story that I wrote a year ago and it was strangely unfamiliar to me.  It is really quite odd because I know that I wrote it.  The story is well written and I remember physically writing it.  I even remember when I wrote it but I don’t remember the words.  The wording, sentence structure and style don’t match the way I write.  Could it be that a year ago I had a different writing style than I do now?  The other possibility is that I wrote this story during a writer’s blockout and was somehow inspired to write in a different way.

This phenomena is such a strange feeling.  As you’re reading your own work you think “wow, this is really good”.  Then your eyes come across a few sentences that in your mind you don’t remember writing.  Not only don’t you remember writing it but it doesn’t seem to fit your writing style.  Then you continue reading and are amazed at the quality of the written document.  It’s your work but somehow strangely unfamiliar.

I’ve tried explaining this to a friend and she looked at me like I was crazy.  I’m curious, do other writers experience this writer’s blockout?