Writing to solutions

Some people process the world through movement. Some by sitting still. Some talk to navigate problems and understand life. Some write.

Joan Didion famously explained in her Why I Write essay,

I write entirely to find out what I’m thinking, what I’m looking at, what I see and what it means. What I want and what I fear. 

Joan Didion

This emerges over and over again in essays, interviews, and memoirs from people who write. Some variation of “writing helps me refine [process, understand, know] my thoughts” or “writing is how I discover.”

It will probably come as no surprise that I relate to all of this. Each time I read or hear someone who writes say one of those things, I think, Yes! Me too! I get it! We are kindred! I belong!

I wrote a few days ago about how since I began working from home, I’ve struggled with figuring out when to shower each day. When I sat down to write that blog post, a blog post about how routine gives me space to think, I had no knowledge of where it would end. Yet, by the time I got to the final paragraph I had an aha! moment about how to fit showers into my work-from-home life.

Beginning the day after I wrote that post, I started setting my alarm 10 minutes earlier so I could get up and shower. That’s it. Showering first thing is now part of my routine, and I feel like I have an extra hour in my day because of those 10 tiny minutes.

It’s a small, dumb example of how writing helps me process life, but I can’t tell you how happy it makes me.