"I never know what I think about something until I read what I've written on it."
William Faulkner
Cute quote. It may look like just humor at first, but it's so true. I just had a conversation about this with a friend and client: She needed to write some more, look at what she wrote, then do some re-writing. Only then will her content be ready for my copy editing work.
The process of reading what we wrote on a given topic can help us refine our points, and even move us to change our minds altogether.
So, if you need advice on something, write about it. Then read what you wrote, re-write as needed, and read it again.
There you have it.
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Comments: 10
That's true of me as well. I think I refine my thoughts better that way. I also tend to avoid taking distracting sideshow tours along unrelated synaptic pathways like some lost Red Riding Hood straying away from the pathway of the topic d'jour. Narrowing the focus of my thoughts and sharpening the razor-like logic my mind can apply seems an easier task for me if I write out my thoughts.
That's partly why I'm a self-proclaimed genius. Umm...'humble' genius. :o)
Regards,
Doyle I <~~~~~
But perhaps his, or her, opinions and thoughts, for example, may need to be embraced by that voice and expressed through that voice--in order for them to be cogent, to the writer, or to maintain a semblance of meaning, for the writer.
But in my own experience as a writer, opinions and thoughts need to find their home less often, in one's true writer's voice, than do one's expression of ideas that are part of a creative piece, short story, or novel.
But I suppose if I were an essayist, for example, I might see the writer's voice, for myself differently. The writer's voice has many venues, it seems to me.
In Faulkner's case, I have to believe that he was referring to his writer's voice as a fiction writer.