Why Doing Other Things is a Vital Part of Writing Jessie Greengrass QUOTES FOR WRITERS

For days I would spend my writing time at my computer, typing and deleting the same sentence over and over again, unable to understand why it wouldn’t come good—nearly in tears, sometimes, with frustration; and then, furious with myself for wasting time on something which didn’t seem to be work, I would go for a walk. At which point, of course, the answer would present itself. It has taken me almost all of the intervening years to realize that the walk is a part of the writing. Perhaps some people can think on purpose while staring at a screen, but I am not one of them. I can’t generate an idea consciously. Instead, I have to perform a kind of sleight of hand called doing other things.

Jessie Greengrass in Learning, Practice, and Repetition: Why the Act of Writing Is Work

Phpto credit: Dave Goudreau on Unsplash