How to Think in Writing

The best way to improve your ability to think is to spend time thinking.

One way to force yourself to slow down and think is to write. Good writing requires good thinking.

Clear writing gives poor thinking nowhere to hide, making a lack of understanding visible.

Whenever I don’t know what I think about something, I use this form of writing. In the hopes that my experience may clarify yours, here are some practical ways to go about it:

• All writing-to-think stems from a problem you’re wrestling with, or a problem you want to understand better. So the moment you become interested in a problem, make note of i

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Thinking through —rather than just thinking—is important. A thought or an idea is never that precious. People have thoughts and ideas all the time, many of them preliminary. Sometimes people mistake their feelings for thoughts and ideas, which are in turn mistaken for absolute truths. The point of writing and reading fiction is not to stay with the... See more

While we naturally understand that writing is a good way to share ideas with others, we under-appreciate just how much good writing helps us think about an idea ourselves. Writing is not only a means of communication, it enables us to practice reasoning.