Writing is thinking. When I write, I am committing my thoughts to the human record. I am saying to the world, “This is what I believe, and I believe this so firmly that I’m willing to subject my thoughts to criticisms from others.” As a result, writing forces me to deal with the sloppiness and entropy of my own thoughts. If my ideas cannot survive the commute from the soup of my brain to the concrete of paper, that’s a sign my ideas have not incubated long enough. Thinking prepares them for that journey.
Practice
Not all writing is clear. Writing is a skill, and all skills need practice. The clearest thinker can still be a messy writer. Good practice here is just to write more. The best practice is to put that writing through the crucible of public opinion. Explicitly writing for this purpose is how I plan to improve.
Joy
Writing is not just useful; it should be joyful as well. I did competitive debate in high school, and looking back at why I spent nights and weekends writing cases, I have to admit that I did get some strange satisfaction in it beyond just my love for competition. It was fun to be clever, and I never felt more clever than when I was sneaking metaphors or alliteration into what was otherwise dry prose. If writing did not spark joy for me, I would find too many excuses to not do it.
Reading
Writing is difficult and laborious for me because I read very slowly. It doesn’t feel good to me to read something and not understand it, when I cannot resolve what I’m reading into a harmonious whole. For most of my life, I’ve read words in my inner voice, meaning that I hear every single word I see with my eyes. Not only that, but this voice wants to read every word as though I were speaking aloud to an audience. My writing is very oratorical as a result - I have no problems with this personally, but it certainly isn’t everyone’s cup of tea.
On Endings
Conclusions are the hardest things for me to write. I have no grand proclamations here. I want to write more. I don’t want the process of writing to be joyless. I believe purposeful writing forces me to refine my thoughts and is, as a result, a legitimate way to practice thinking more clearly and coherently.