Read. Write. Live.

A few months ago I read that writing was thinking. I was very much in agreement with the whole article, and I still am. But I now see it much more clearly. In my quest to build this habit of writing every Friday I have felt what I had just rationally understood back when I read the piece.

Let me share my realization.

When we think, it just happens. When we write, we choose to do it. The difference is fundamental. Thinking happens pretty much involuntarily. Try and connect the thread of thoughts you have within a 10-minute period while you do something mundane, like washing the dishes, or organizing a desk, and you will probably lose track of all the topics that cross your mind during that time.

Attempt to write 2000 words on a specific topic without editing it, in perfect order, with clarity and resulting in an engaging and fluid text that the reader enjoys from beginning to end. You will most likely fail, because the thinking and ideas that flow in your head are faster and messier than the act of capturing them in an organized, edited, and re-edited well-written story.

When you think, there is just meaning in your head. There are no opinions or reactions of others, and there is silence. But when you write, there are Cs and Ss, and commas and semicolons. There are capital letters, and separations. There is your meaning, and the meaning others give to your meaning. There is noise of the pen scraping the paper, or of the keys being tapped by your fingers. There is a tone, if there’s a reader, that gives voice to your words.

While thinking is just happening without our noticing, writing has to be a much more conscious act. Writing is an act of discipline and intention. It is an attempt to tame the mind while keeping its creative essence. Its identity. When you write, you challenge your own conceptions, for when the thoughts flow from the mind into the paper, you start to see the gaps and weaknesses in them and, if you appreciate the value of correction and relearning, you feel the need to change them, to improve them.

Yet, it is still true that writing is thinking because it is when our mind produces that we can fill in the pages. There are no books, no diaries, no movie scripts, no biographies and no novels without a thought first. There is no writing without thought, but there is thought without writing.

Writing is much more concrete, and that is why it’s scary. Because your thoughts, when translated into tangible words, can be read by others, over and over again. They can be reproduced, and reshared. And in some cases, they can even become them. Because our thoughts can change people, just as we can change when we are exposed to the thinking of others. There is feeling and thinking when we read, and that can change us. When we read others, there is agreement that builds us up, or opposition that tenses us, or imagination that fascinates us, or boredom that kills us.

Writing and sharing your work is also scary, because you know they are a reflection of a thinking that may change. When someone reads what you wrote, they are reading a version of you that stayed in that moment of time. Perhaps some of it remains in you, but the purity of it has stayed within the text itself. They have a piece of you in it. Yet, you are now in another time, thinking new words and writing new thoughts.

Writing and reading your work is scary, because it’s like looking at your naked soul in the mirror. You may or may not like what you see, but you cannot unsee it.

But writing is also an opportunity to find meaning, and give meaning. To create order out of the chaos of the mind, and to answer to your own questions. When we write, even if we are alone, we don’t feel lonely. When we write, we can have a conversation with ourselves. Writing is settling into the world we live in. It’s like catching a butterfly and putting it into a garden, where it can keep on flying while letting its beauty be enjoyed by others.

Try asking yourself a difficult question, in your own mind. Now try writing the question, and see how there will be more words flowing through the ink beyond the question itself. Didn’t you have the answer?

Figure out how you felt about something confusing that happened recently. Now try writing it down on a notebook. Doesn’t it become clearer?

Make an effort to remember ten things you have to do today, and leave it be. Now try writing it in a list of to-dos and sticking it into a place you know you will see multiple times during the day. Are you forgetting them?

Attempt to learn a few words in a new language each day, just by reading them. Now try writing them on paper. Don’t you learn them faster?

Lastly, writing cannot be without reading, which is in its own way, a form of thinking. It is the thinking of others being injected into our minds. Sometimes, writing is the fruit of reading. If you want to be writing, you have to spend a good deal of time reading, because sticking to your own thoughts would just be limiting. Reading, in a way, is like listening to others. It is a good skill to have. And also a hard one to develop. But when we start doing it, we discover and let ourselves be fascinated by the diversity of existence because ‘that had not occurred to me’. We grow in unpredictable ways because ‘I didn’t know that was possible’. We walk away from fears because ‘I had not seen it that way’. We feel more, we think more, meaning that in a way, we live more. When we read, we take in the naked souls of others and extend their lives with our attention. When we read, we are nourishing the writing of our own future souls.

So go ahead. Live a little. Read a little. Write a little.

Happy Friday,
Maria 🌺