I’ve been reading a book—The Quiet Path—that I bought at a little church in Wales. It is full of one page reflections and I’ve been reading one page a day. Yesterday there was a paragraph that exactly describes my experience with writing.
[Writing’s] not just about collecting thoughts you have already, then getting them down on paper – for in the very act of writing, new things emerge. It’s more like an exploration process than expression. Often, you will have no idea what you are thinking until it appears on the page.
In the slow, regular movement of the pen, in the mysterious formation of letters, words and lines, something new and fresh comes into the world. Your journal can become a space for discovery, exploration and delight.
By writing you know.
Andrew Rudd, The Quiet Place: Contemplative Practices for Daily Life, p91
There were so many times during my M. Div. when I would carefully outline the arguments for an essay and then completely change course during the actual writing of the essay. It was in the writing that I either came to understand what I believed, or realised that my half-formed early thoughts needed adjusting. That’s not just true for complex academic arguments, writing about my own life, what’s happening, what I feel, doing a brain dump, writing lists—they are all ways of working out what it all means. I’ve written about this before, but I think it is worth coming back to and acknowledging the importance of writing to me.
Do you use writing to make sense of your world? Has writing your thoughts out, ever changed how you understand something?
Comments
21 responses to “A Quote About Writing”
This is a beautiful quote. I wouldn’t say I use writing to make sense of my world so much as I use writing as a cathartic way to put things in perspective or to record something that happened that I either cherish, or find hilarious. There was a lot of favoritism in my childhood home and writing things out and detailing them is something that I take comfort in, if that makes sense. Then there are other stories that are just so damn funny, I write them to save that memory.
I have stories I wrote down that I had almost forgotten. I’m so glad I wrote down some the funny things the kids did when they were younger
So true! Writing is how I sort out my messy thoughts.
This morning I had to do a pro/con exercise for my French exam prep, and it’s been years since I’ve written anything that structured. It was a good reminder of what a proper text actually looks like.
Planning it beforehand helped more than I expected…which made me think I should do that planning part more often!
What is the French exam for?
It’s just as a hobby – something to keep the brain busy! 😂
And French is one of Switzerland’s national languages, so it’s also useful to have.
Oh 100%. I often use writing to work things out in my head.
In the novel that I wrote (COMING SOON OMG) I started with the idea that it would be a light romance for middle-aged people. That is NOT what it ended up being! And I didn’t really know until I started.
I cannot even imagine writing a novel. I look forward to reading it.
Writing helps me process things in unexpected ways; I’ve always loved reading (and often make sense of my feelings by reading), but writing out my thoughts is relatively new and has been life-changing!
Aren’t we lucky that we can write to make sense of things
I have definitely changed my thoughts on a book by writing out my thoughts. This is what scares me about the rise in AI use among the college students I work with. They just plug things in and out pops writing and they haven’t actually sat down to think about things. It’s very scary.
Yes, I’m glad my kids got through uni before AI. We’ll lose all our original thinkers.
This is such a great quote, because it really captures the writing process. It’s not just merely that you think of something and put it down on paper. By putting it down on paper and seeing the written word, you trigger a few thoughts process and by reframing your thoughts your words on the page take off in different directions sometimes. Isn’t it quite fascinating?
It really is. My thoughts often don’t even begin to make sense until I can write them down
Yes, 100% this is the case for me. I work a lot of things out by writing. Like my “light” reflections have made me slow down and think about the word and how it applies to my life. My therapist has encouraged me to write down my thoughts/feelings about the accident/other challenges from the fall and then to delete it afterwards. She said there is value in getting things out of our head/our subconscious and down on a page, but the kind of writing she wants me to do does not need to be saved. I haven’t found the time to do this, but I really should.
I guess you would need a good chunk of time to write and process the accident, especially since it probably wouldn’t be a good idea to expect you could jump straight from that back into everyday life. I hope you get time to do this and it helps.
Exploration rather than expression — that makes so much sense. It’s amazing to me how many times I think I know what I’m writing toward, and then it turns out I was, in fact, writing about something completely different.
I know, it’s so strange
writing makes me pause and reflect in this rushing world. I like the process more than the outcome.
WRiting is a good way to slow down.
It absolutely does! Writing (blog and journal) helps me figure things out and most importantly, be gentle with myself. When I see how much I’ve done on paper (or a computer page) I feel validated.
Writing is so powerful.