Writing Is Thinking by Hand

For me, writing is thinking by hand. It's the core of authorship. I love writing. Most people don't.

Ask someone to write and you get a whole list of objections. It takes too long. It doesn't sound the way I mean it. I can explain it better if I just talk.

The latter I hear most often. They argue:

Speaking is the TGV, straight to your destination. Writing is the slow train that sputters through every stop. But that is exactly why writing works.

Writing confronts you. What makes perfect sense in your head comes out differently on paper. It's like taking a photo with the latest iPhone, only to realise that the way you saw it was more beautiful. So you start reaching for the filters.

Everything makes more sense in your head. Because in your head, you have all the context you need. All the framing to make something clear is already there.. for you. But the moment you start writing, you have to provide that context. And because it feels so obvious to you, you don't. You forget that the reader is not inside your head.

And speaking? The exact same problem. We think we give enough context, but we don't. The only difference: when you write, you can look at the result from a distance. Analyse it. Adjust. When you speak, you can't.

Tell a speaker you're going to record what they just said, watch the recording together and discuss it, and suddenly the same resistance appears. Exactly the same as with writing.

The problem is the confrontation with the gap between what you mean and what lands, not the medium.

Writing makes that gap visible. That's why people don't like doing it. And exactly why it works.