Writing Is Thinking

When I taught fourth graders, I learned that convincing a nine-year-old to write multiple drafts of a single piece is one of the two toughest child-related challenges we face in modern times. (The other is dressing a newborn baby in long sleeves, but that's a subject for another post.)

I would be more critical of my students' impulse to dash off a draft and be done with it, but I happen to have the same impulse. In fact, I suspect many of us do.

With rare exceptions, writing a high-quality original work takes time, effort, and multiple revisions. Which makes it, quite often, a pain. Why is that?

It's simple: Writing is thinking, and thinking is hard.

Writing is both the means and the end, the journey and the destination. Although the ultimate goal is usually to communicate with someone else, writing is first a conversation with yourself, a way to try out words and phrases and ideas to see what best reflects the thoughts that are bouncing around in your head.

Going through multiple versions of a piece doesn't mean you're a bad writer; it's what makes you a good one. And if you have a piece that doesn't feel final yet, that just means you're not done thinking yet.

So if you're wrestling with rewrites, don't despair! Embrace the process and know that when you do get to the finished product, it will reflect your clearest and best thinking.

Your fourth-grade teacher will be so proud.