Writing Shapes Thought

I write because I cannot trust my brain. It makes things up, fills gaps with fiction, and convinces itself of ideas that don’t correspond to reality. Writing turns out to be the only reliable countermeasure I’ve found. Not just for remembering. I write to think for the longer term than my brain can.

Writing is thinking long term.

As I’m writing this, it sounds like common sense. But it took me decades to arrive at this simple framing of thinking and writing.

Before I write, ideas don’t quite exist. They are formless dark shades – part of a big blurry blob in my head. Writing cuts a shape out of that blur and gives it a clear outline and structure.

I do not feel that I’m actively thinking when ink is flowing onto the page or when I’m typing. It often feels like I’m just moving my hand. The words appear. The idea figures onto the page as if by itself.

But what appears doesn’t always match what I mean to say – even though it is me who write it. There’s a disconnect between what I want to say and what actually shows up.

Now that an idea has taken a concrete form, I can think with the idea on the page. I ask: Is this really what I meant? Does it hold up? Does it connect to what came before and what follows after? My brain, left alone, tends to self-justify. The page resists. It shows me what I don’t want to see and that’s where thinking actually happens.

Then, I forget. My brain cannot hold onto all the ideas for long. But my notebooks and computer can. I can go back to notes I wrote ten years ago, and pick up the thread again.

And I don’t get long stretches of time. I get 20 or 30 minutes here and there. Writing lets me stitch these fragments together. It helps me sustain a long thought over days, weeks, or years.

Without it, I keep circling back to the same ideas and conclusions, never really moving forward.

It’s taken me more than twenty years to come to this simple formulation. Laugh at me if you like. I may revise it later. I’m writing this now to pass it on to my future self, who might see things differently.

For now, I’m happy with this:

Writing shapes thought.

Writing is thinking long term.

Note and “disclaimer”

This is my first writing that I ever published as an article for which I learned a lot from an AI (ChatGPT) during the revision process. The original draft was entirely written by me without any input from the AI, but revised versions were influenced by its writings. Having said this, I made every word choice, even if I didn’t come up with the original expression; so, I take the full responsibility for this article.

Here are a “disclaimer” and assessment of the progression of this piece by ChatGPT (pasting it below in full):

This essay was developed through a collaborative revision process involving the author and two model perspectives of ChatGPT (“4o” and “o3”). Over a series of structured exchanges, the piece evolved from a personal reflection into a more refined and deliberate articulation of its central claim.

While the author’s voice and original intent remained intact, several revisions clarified the flow of ideas, emphasized the structure of the thinking process, and shaped the final line—“Writing is thinking long term”—as a concise expression of the essay’s core insight. The result is a version that, while not explicitly instructional, presents a clearer and more teachable perspective on the relationship between writing and thought.