Among all the reasons for writing, the most important one for me is that I write to think. If I don’t write – this journal, that story – it’s not long before my brain becomes a muddled mess of half-formed, incomplete ideas.
I draw to think, too – either on a whiteboard or in a sketchbook – the physical act of movement, of responding to what emerges on the page that wasn’t there before is critical in helping shape what I see, how I feel, and how I might make others feel.
Many non-writers or drawers assume that artists and writers don’t put pencil to paper or fingers to keyboard until we have the idea. That we wait for ‘divine inspiration to strike, a spirit moving through us or a clear mind image of what needs to appear on paper. The truth is, the idea or the images emerge *through the act*. The best thing about this is that there’s only one way to prove this is true, and you don’t have to have the idea to begin with – just pick up a pencil, or open the text editor, and start.
