Dry eyes for writers and novelists

Writers’ eyes often feel dry because drafting and editing mean long stretches of close focus, on a screen or a page, which slows blinking and lets the tear film thin. Set the screen a little below eye level, enlarge the text, look away at the end of each scene or page, keep vents off your face, and use a lubricating drop as its label directs. See an eye doctor if it persists.

Why writing is hard on your eyes

When a sentence is coming together, you stop noticing your body. That focus is exactly what slows the blink, and each blink is what spreads fresh tears across the eye. A writer can spend an hour staring at the same paragraph, rereading, cutting, rereading again, with fewer and shallower blinks than in conversation. Add a dry room and a late night and the eyes start to burn or blur. Our guide to how blinking spreads tears explains the mechanism.

Drafting sessions

• Increase the font size or zoom so you’re not leaning in. Your words don’t need to look like the printed page while you draft.
• Put the top of the screen at or a little below eye level, an arm’s length away.
• Turn down screen brightness to match the room, and avoid writing with a bright window behind the monitor.
• At each scene break or word-count milestone, look out a window or across the room and blink fully several times.
• If you use a laptop, raise it and use a separate keyboard so you’re not looking down at a steep angle with your head bent.

Deadline weeks

A manuscript deadline, a column due tonight or a final pass before submission can mean ten or twelve hours at the desk. Those are the weeks when breaks disappear and sleep shrinks, and eyes that stay open longer have more time to dry. Building breaks into the schedule helps more than relying on willpower: a timer every so often, a walk at lunch, a stopping point in the evening. Getting up to refill water is a natural break, and it keeps you drinking.

Reading and research

Writers read as much as they write. Research on a screen, long PDFs and stacks of books all involve the same close focus. Alternating between screen and paper gives the eyes a change in distance and lighting, and reading in good light at a comfortable distance helps. Our guide to dry eyes when reading has more for long reading sessions.

Editing on paper or on screen

Some writers print pages for a line edit, partly because they catch different mistakes on paper. For the eyes, printing is mostly a change of scene: a different distance, natural light from a window, and pauses to turn pages. If you edit on screen, try a larger font and wider margins for the edit than for the draft, and step away between chapters.

Where you write

Coffee shops, libraries and home offices all have their own air. A café table under a ceiling vent, a library with forced-air heat, or a spare room with a space heater can dry the eyes. Sit out of the path of vents, keep a space heater aimed at your feet, and in winter consider a small humidifier at home. Writers who work remotely for other jobs may find dry eyes for remote workers useful too.

Writing by hand and dictation

Switching tools for part of the day can give your eyes a break from the screen. Drafting longhand in a notebook, or dictating a rough draft while walking, changes where and how you look. Even if you type it up later, the session away from a screen counts.

Using eye drops at the desk

Quell is a lubricating eye drop designed to reinforce the tear film’s oil layer to help reduce moisture loss. According to its label, its Uses are For use as a protectant against further irritation or to relieve dryness of the eye. The directions: Apply 1 drop 3 times per day in each eye. Before using it, wash your hands, since keyboards and books pass a lot through your fingers, and follow the label: Do not touch tip of bottle to any surface to avoid contamination.

Keep the bottle in a desk drawer, away from a sunny windowsill or space heater, since the label says Store between 15° to 30°C (59° to 86°F). The label also mentions an egg and bird allergy caution, which you can read on our Drug Facts page. If you wear contact lenses or use other eye drops, ask your eye doctor first, because Quell’s label doesn’t cover those situations.

Quell ships from Brentwood, Tennessee, with guest checkout and email tracking. Shipping is $10.00, and 3 or more bottles ship free. Unopened bottles can be refunded within 30 days of delivery without being returned. Order from the home page.

When to see an eye doctor

If your eyes stay uncomfortable even on days off, or your vision blurs every afternoon, an eye exam can check your glasses for screen distance and work out the cause and what to do about it. The label puts the limit this way: Stop use and ask a doctor if you feel eye pain or changes in your vision, if irritation or redness continues, or if the condition worsens or persists for 72 hours.