When I have a piece of writing in mind, what I have, in fact...

When I have a piece of writing in mind, what I have, in fact, is a mental bucket: an attractor for and generator of thought. It’s like a thematic gravity well, a magnet for what would otherwise be a mess of iron filings. I’ll read books differently and listen differently in conversations. In particular I’ll remember everything better; everything will mean more to me. That’s because everything I perceive will unconsciously engage on its way in with the substance of my preoccupation. A preoccupation, in that sense, is a hell of a useful thing for a mind.

James Somers • More People Should Write

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Take this post you’re reading - it’s a self-imposed container I created, and now I have an impulse to fill it. A year ago, I wanted to make more space for writing in my life, so I created a container for it. If spag mol didn't exist, I wouldn't write (and therefore think) as much as I do.

is your container too big, too small, or just right?

I was struck by one of the miracles of the cognitive process—that the act of writing will summon from the buried past exactly what we need exactly when we need it. Memory and intuition and chance associations will always generate a certain percentage of what any writer writes. The remainder is generated by reason.

William Zinsser • Writing to Learn: How to Write - and Think - Clearly About Any Subject at All

When I sit down to write, the meadow is still sunk in darkness, and above it, satellites pass by, one after the other. My thoughts are flighty and shapeless; they morph as I approach them. But when I type, it is as if I pin my thoughts to the table. I can examine them. They feel porous to the touch and crumble. But among the fragments, I discover t... See more

is your container too big, too small, or just right?

William Zinsser • Writing to Learn: How to Write - and Think - Clearly About Any Subject at All

Henrik Karlsson • How to Think in Writing